The Hidden Secret
by SunnySammy2013
Summary: The relationship between Marinette and Adrien start to be looking up, but when a tragic incident occurs with Chat Noir, Marinette discovers that she doesn't know everything about her Miraculous power. It's when Chat and Ladybug start investigate their new powers that everything starts to turn downhill and Hawk Moth changes everything. Ch 3 appears as Ch 27
1. Chapter 1- The Chase

I'm almost completely out of breath. This guy is crazy. He's so fast! Where is that stupid cat? He should have been here a half an hour ago! I can't take this guy on my own.

"Oh Ladybug. You'll never catch me. You should just give up and give me your miraculous." I don't even know what his deal is. His name is Lightspeed, which I guess means he is faster than the speed of light? I can see him, but his bright colored suit does help me keep an eye on him.

"Over my dead body!" I get out my magic yo-yo and throw it to the nearest light post. Since I don't have the upper hand on the ground maybe I'll have a chance in the sky. As soon as it hooks on, I leap off and chase him.

"Oh ladybug, you think going up will give you the upper hand?" He says, and chuckles while going even faster down the street.

"Darn it". I say. I land on a nearby roof. I need to catch my breath.

"It looks like you need my help after all." A familiar voice purrs behind me. I turn in the direction of the voice and see the face that belongs to Chat Noir, my partner.

"Where in the world were you? I have been battling this guy for, like, ever!" I yell at him.

"What? I was busy. Plus, I like watching you go solo. You look fantastic today by the way m'lady." He coos. Ugg. I can't do this now. I look away from him.

"Aww, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I'll never do it again!" He says. He folds his hands together and give me baby doll eyes. I look into them. Curse my weakness for baby doll eyes.

"It's fine as long as it never happens again." I point at him. He smirks at me. "Your wish is my command m'lady."

"So what's up with Mr. Speedster?"

"His name is Lightspeed, he can go extremely fast, so be careful. I've almost gotten him a couple of times, but I would barely miss him."

"Where is his akuma?"

"Most likely in his shoes. The faster he goes, his shoes changes colors."

"Hmmmm. Do you think that this Light guy knows that I'm on the battle field yet?" He asks deep in thought.

"Maybe. I don't think so though." I say.

"Okay, I might have a plan. Why don't you meet me at the park? Oh, and bring Lightspeed with you. Not as like a date or anything though."

"All right." Is all I can say. I immediately spring into action, completely ignoring that last comment. I run and jump roof to roof leaving Chat behind.

As I'm running, I suddenly hear a scream coming from the park. I really hope that it's exactly what I think it is.

As I approach the park I can see a brightly colored circle. The closer I get I see that it was actually Lightspeed repeatedly circling a man in a running costume.

"Please stop!" The victim screamed.

"Never! I'll suck the oxygen right out of your lungs!" Light says. I have to act really quickly, or it might get bad. I wonder what Chat is up to. Quietly I circle around the park to the area where I can get closest to him. I release my yo-yo and jump over the man and Light. I throw my yo-yo strait at the man in the center and grab him and yanked him from the center.

"No! Curse you Ladybug!" He cries. "Fine, I now realize I can't get him unless I get you. Give me your miraculous!" He shouts. He then sped towards me and before I could blink, he was right in my face.

I scrunched my face for the impact, but there was nothing. I open my eyes to see a silver poll inches from my face. I look up and see Chat sliding down the poll. I look around and see Light not moving on the ground close nearby.

"Am I too late? Sorry, I was in a bit of traffic." He looks down at me with a smirk. When he landed, he clicked a button on his large poll and it degraded to its original size. He gave me a seducing look. I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

Chat focuses back to our foe. "Is he unconscious? He doesn't seem to be moving." He says as he creeps closer to Light.

"I think so." I say. I really hate it when that happens. It is not these people fault that they go rampaging through town. They're just victims of Hawk Moth's wants to rule the world.

Chat pokes Light with his stick. Suddenly, Chat yelps as the unconscious body moves and grabs his metal stick.

In a flash the Light was gone. On edge, Chat and I start franticly looking around for Light.

"Are you looking for something?" A bitter voice says. Me and chat slowly turn around in awe. He is so fast even faster than he was before.

Chat gets out of his shock first. "Hey! Give me my staff! Haven't you heard? Swiper no Swiping!"

"No, I don't think so. I think this tool will actually help me speed up beating you losers! Now give me your miraculous'!"

I have to think fast. If there is any time to use my lucky charm, it would have to be now.

"Lucky Charm!" I scream. I release my weapon and fling it up into the air. There was a bright flash of red and white then an object came falling down.

"A Frisbee? What can I do with a Frisbee?" I ask, more to myself.

"Oh fun! We'll get to play a game of catch, but we'll have to play it quickly." Chat said. He looked at me and gave me a quick wink. Ignoring him, I look around. What to do? Aha.

"Quick Chat, I've got an idea." I start to tell him the plan when we here a loud yawn.

"Common guys. I thought a fight with you guys would be way more animated." Light moaned.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. Don't worry, this fight will end quickly." It's a good thing I told Chat everything because he already started to run straight for Lightspeed. Sadly, his attempt to attack Light was fruitless. Lightspeed hit him with his staff really hard and sent him flailing through the sky.

"Oh Lightspeed! You're not fast at all. I bet you couldn't even catch this Frisbee." I shout ignoring the fact that my partner was just hit across the field and is now probably hurting. I immediately gain the attention of my opponent. I throw the Frisbee as hard as I can to the other side of the park. Just like I hoped, Light quickly followed.

Light caught to Frisbee. "Haha!" He exclaimed. He continued to run to make a turn around. Suddenly, a black figure shot up behind him and gave him a good trip. After a few hard tumbles, Light slid to a stop. Before Lightspeed could regain his stance, Chat was right by his side.

"Cataclysm!" Chat shouts as a black mist of destruction forms into his hands. He quickly took off the mans shoes and turned them into a pile of goo. As the shoes start to melt, the akuma fluttered out.

Before the akuma could get anywhere I whip out my yo-yo. "No more evil doing for you, little akuma!" I touch the yo-yo and it shown a bright light as it opened. I fling my yo-yo around me a few times. "Time to de-evilize!" I shout. I then release my yo-yo and catch the akuma while in mid-flight. "Gocha!"

I then touch the closed yo-yo and release the now pure white butterfly. "Bye-bye little butterfly." I say as I wave it good-bye.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" I cheer as I pick up the Frisbee and throw it into the sky. There was a flash of red and white that flew in every direction to repair everything that just happened. I look at Lighspeed as he turns back into his original self.

"Pound it" Chat and I say in union while fist bumping.

"W-where am I?" The confused man asked. I help him up to his feet.

"Are you okay? You were just akumatized. What made you so upset?" I ask him.

"W-well, you see. I was in a race earlier, and I was about to win, but another racer jumped in front of me, forcing me to trip over myself and made me completely lose the race." He says. He looks down ashamed and upset.

"Hey now, it's okay. Races are made for fun right? It's important to remember good sportsmanship."

"Yeah, that's right. Thanks Ladybug. Sorry for everything." He says before running off.

"I'm not sure if it's the run or you that just took my breath away." Chat says as I look at him. Geez, this guy. I hear both mine and his miraculous' beep.

"Oh, well it looks like it's time to go. I guess I'll catch you later." I say about to go. Suddenly Chat grabs my arm.

"Hey, so, I was wondering if I can see you again later. Like, the real you." He says.

"Chat, you already know the answer to that." I say back. Chat lets go of my arm and becomes abruptly super serious.

"Well, it's just been a long time that we've been fighting together. I think it's about time we actually got to know each other." Chat says, a small fake smile on his face.

"Chat, you know I can't do that. Our kwami's said we can't."

"But what if one of us get captured by Hawk Moth, or gets akumatized? I would like to know so I can know when I'll be working alone. Plus, what if we know each other outside of the suits? And…" Chat continues on for a bit on different what ifs and different unrealistic circumstances that won't ever happen that would need him to know my identity. I start to get anxious when I hear our miraculous's beep again. Before he started saying something else I grabbed his arms, making him immediately stop in his tracks.

I look into his emerald eyes. "Chat you know that would never happen. I appreciate it that you're worried." At this Chat relaxes his arms and looks down. Wow, he was super tense. He must be serious about this.

"It's just that, I just want to keep you safe at all times." He says. He looks back up at me, a little dust of pink on his cheeks.

"Chat…" I sigh. "You know it will only be a matter of time before one of us find the other out. Be patient." Chat doesn't react at all. I feel bad. Oh, I got an idea to cheer him up.

"How about if you find me out, I'll allow you to take me out on a date." I say. As soon as those words popped out of my mouth, I regretted it. His reaction was immediate. He had the hugest smile on his face and hope in his eyes. 'Oh boy, I'm in for it' I say to myself.

"Really you mean it?" Chat asks, grabbing my hands.

"Yeah yeah. But I don't think you ever will." I reply. I hear another beep from my miraculous. I panic. "Gatta go. I'll see you next time." Before I leave, Chat kisses my hand.

"Until next time, m'lady." He then runs in the opposite direction. I watch as he disappears down the street, then I race back to my house.


	2. Chapter 2- I'm Paired With Who?

Marinette's POV

I barely make it to my balcony before my miraculous beeps for the final time and turn me back.

"That was close." I say

"A little too close, I would say." My little Ladybug patterned Kwami, Tikki, says as she flutters next to me.

"It's not my fault. Chat had to talk to me. And he had legitimate concerns." I say defensively.

"You're lucky that Light appeared after school, or else you would be late. Again." Tikki says folding her arms. She's right. These last few weeks have been tough. Hawk Moth has been way more active recently, so I would sometimes have to skip school. My parents are upset that I have so many tardies and absences. If only my parents and teachers knew I was living a double life as Paris's protector.

"You're right Tikki. I'll be careful next time." Tikki floats closer to me as I start heading down to my room. I suddenly feel relaxed as I look around my super pink, room and see all of my posters of Adrien that are on my walls.

"Are you going to keep your promise to Chat? He seemed really happy about what you said." Tikki said giving me a raised eyebrow.

"I guess, but it's not like he will. It will take a lot of brain power for him to piece my identity together."

"Okay, if you say so." I sit on my bed and go through my backpack. I have so much homework I have to do tonight. I groan internally. I grab out my history folder and put it on my desk. I hear a creak from my bedroom door opening. My mom's head pops out, "Honey, come down stairs it's time for dinner."

"Okay mom." I look at my homework. "Well, mom, I have a lot of work to do. Would it be okay if I eat dinner up here tonight? I'll bring down my dishes when I'm done."

"Oh, okay dear." She says before she disappears down the stairs. I follow her and grab a plate of spaghetti that's on the kitchen counter. "I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow." I give my mom and dad a kiss before going up stairs and start my long night of doing homework.

Adrien's POV

I'm lying on my bed looking at the ceiling. I just can't stop smiling. Ladybug, my lady, has promised me that if I figure out her identity, she'll let me take her out. I will never be more dedicated to anything in my life.

"What's the love sick smirk for?" Plagg asked as he plops a piece of cheese in his mouth.

"Oh nothing, just that my love of my life just promised me that I could go out with her." I say. I sit up and stare out of my large bedroom window.

"Really? Ladybug? Saying she'll go on a date with you? Huh, are you sure it was Ladybug, and not your imagination?" Plagg states. Gee, sometimes he can be a bit harsh.

"I'm most positive that it was Ladybug that said that. And I'm positive that I'll find her out. I just need some time." I start thinking of ways that I could find her out. I could follow her home after a mission. No, that would make me a stalker. I'm desperate, but not that desperate. I sit and think of different ways to figure her out.

"Well, good luck, I guess." Plagg says and flies away to find another block of cheese. I look around my room for anything that might help me. As I look around and see my really full backpack. Darn it, I have a ton of work to do. I grab my bag and pull out all my homework and start working on it. It takes me a while to get into it because I keep daydreaming of ladybug. Ugh, curse my profound love for her. 'Common Adrien, you have work to do' I say to myself.

When I finish, its dark outside and my alarm says it's almost 1 a.m. I am so tired. Plagg is already asleep on his designated spot. I turn off the lights and crawl into bed. I quickly fall asleep into my sweet dreams of me kicking butt with ladybug.

The next morning

Marinette's POV

"I cannot believe I once again woke up after my alarm clock." I say to Tikki who is in my white and pink handbag on my side. I am racing to school. I hope I'm not going to be too late.

"You need a much louder alarm clock Marinette. Or put it across the room so you have to get up to turn it off." Tikki remarks.

"I know, I know." I make it to school with three minutes to spare. I stop and put my hands on my knees to catch my breath.

I feel a tap on my shoulder "So you finally decide to show up." I turn around to see my best friend Alya Césaire. "Uh, yeah. I woke up late again." I say and scratch the back of my neck. I give her a hug.

"So. Did you see the video of Ladybug I posted on my Ladyblog yesterday?" She gets out her phone to show me excitedly. She plays a video of Ladybug and Chat noir flying through town chasing Light. "They are so cool! I have to have an interview with them sometime. I just gatta." She shouts. A few people turned and looked at here. Alya blushed a little bit, and put on a hushed voice.

"Don't you think that would be awesome?" She asks.

"Yeah, it would be!" I say. I then make a note in my head to do the interview with Alya next time I'm on a mission.

The morning bell rings and everyone heads off to class. I hear a car pull up on the sidewalk and turn around to see Adrien come out. He starts running to class. I'm already seated at my desk when Adrien runs in just as the begining class bell rings.

"Cutting it close again, Mr. Agreste. Please take your seat." The teacher says. "Yes ma'am" He walks to his desk. He smiles and waves at me and Alya. I look away and I can feel my blood flood to my cheeks. Oh man, he is so cute. He sits down and gives his best friend Nino a fist bump.

"Alright class." The teacher announced. "As you all may know, the semester is about to end. As one of your final grades you will be doing a group project on what you have learned in this semesters' unit of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1799." I look at Alya. We have been preparing this for weeks. Me and Alya know exactly what we're going to do. I just really hope that we'll be in the same group.

"I will split you all up into groups of threes. I have decided the groups based on how well you do in class. There will be no trading of partners, and no buts. If there are any true problems with your partners, please inform me after class." I look at Alya. I grab her hand as the teacher says the names of each group.

We wait for our names to be stated. "Alya, Sabrina, and Nathanial." I look at Alya in devastation. What are we going to do now? My one chance to be in a good group gone. Alya squeezed my hand and gave me a small sympathetic smile.

"Marinette, Adrien, and Chloé." Did my ears deceive me? Did she just say I was in a group with Adrien? My eyes go wide with excitement. Wait, did she say I was paired up with Chloé? Immediately I lose all hope and fall back into my seat. I can hear Alya chuckling next to me. I shoot her an evil glare.

"I guess that means we're partners." Adrien says. I look at him. He gives me a pleasant smile. I start to blush.

"I-I guess s-so." I stutter. Wow, I can never say anything straight. I mentally face palm myself.

"Oh Adrien!" Chloé says and waves. "It must be fate that we are paired up together." I role my eyes. How can I be paired up with HER? Luck was and wasn't on my side today.

"Yeah, I guess so." Adrien says and waves back. The teacher finishes making the groups.

"Your project is due two weeks from now, just before Christmas break. I wish you all good luck. I don't have a lesson today, so you can all get started." I pack up my bag, and Alya whispers to me, "I'm so sorry. He at least you're with Adrien." She nudges me. I look back up and smirk. She was right. I am paired up with my crush. It can't be that bad.

I look up and see Chloé snuggling up with Adrien, holding him tightly by the arm. He looks super uncomfortable. 'Or it could be the worst time of my life'.

I get up and go to Adrien and Chloé. I don't say anything, I just stand near them and wait until Chloé was done. "Hey, guys, I know that you guys have a…" I pause. "Thing, but let's put a pause on that and start working on the project."

"We're not a thing." Adrien says a bit defensively.

"Of course we are. We are totally meant for each other." Chloé says. I can see Adrien role his eyes. I feel much better when I noticed that maybe Adrien finds her just as annoying as I do.

Adrien brushes her off him. "Yeah, I agree with Marinette. We should go start working on the project." He says.

"Let's go to the Library. There is a ton of stuff down there." I mention.

"Sure. And then how about after school, we can come to my house and work on it some more?" Adrien asks and looks at me, almost like he wants my approval. My heart flutters. He's asking me if I can go to his house? Me?

"Y-yeah, that should be j-just fine." I tumble over my words.

"Yeah that would be perfect!" Chloé says. Together we walk down to the library to look for some history books. Well, it's more like Adrien and I did the work. Chloé was at one of the desks looking at her phone. I tell them the idea I had when I was working with Alya.

"Yeah, that sounds good. We should change it just a bit because Alya's group might have the same idea." Adrien says. I look at Chloé to see if she had anything to say, but she wasn't paying any attention.

"Yeah. I think so too." I mumble and look back at the book I was looking at. We hear the bell ring and pack our stuff to go to our lunch break. Chloé gave Adrien a hug good-bye. I have to admit, I am a little jealous of Chloé always showing her affection like that.

After Chloé left,fd Adrien came up to me. "How about you come by my house at 5 tonight?" He asks.

"Does Chloé know?" I ask because I don't remember him telling her what time they should come to his house.

"No. I bet she has actually already forgot that we had a project together. Plus, she won't be doing anything important in the meantime." Adrien says with a sigh. He was right.

"So I guess I'll see you then?" Adrien pulls out his hand to shake with mine.

"Y-yeah. Sure." I shake his hand and he leaves.

Wait. Does that mean I'm going to be at his house, by myself? Just me and him? Is this my dream come true, or my biggest nightmare? I immediately start bushing hard. I slap my hands on my face to calm myself down a little, but it doesn't work. I text Alya that I'm just going to go home, that I'm super hungry. I don't want her to freak out that I'm going to be ALONE with my biggest crush.


	3. Chapter 4- The Tragedy

"Don't scream." A voice behind me says. I immediately relax. I reach up and take the hand away from my mouth. I turn around to come face to face with Alya. Oh My GOSH! I was totally about to go full on Ladybug on her. I give here a very deep death glare.

"What in the heck? Why did you do that?" I ask, my voice a little raised. She shushes me. "I wanted to startle you that's all." She laughs. "And it looks like I gave you some heck of a scare." I role my eyes.

"What are you even doing here?" I ask.

"Well, I was heading home from Nino's house after working on the project. I was walking past Adrien's house when I see you come out of the gates." Oh, yeah.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?" He whispered yelled at me. I sigh.

"Well, I know you would totally freak about it, and say things that would make me more nervous than I was already. I swear that I was going to tell you tomorrow."

Alya huffs and crosses her arms. "It's okay, I forgive you, as long as you tell me exactly what you guys did tonight." She says. I then begin to tell her everything that just happened. Throughout the whole time she was totally fangirling over every little thing. "I totally ship you guys! What's even better is that Chloé wasn't there to ruin it!" She states while putting her hands on her cheeks.

"What about you and Nino?" I ask.

"Oh yeah. Nino, Sabrina, and I just met up for an hour to work on the project. Nothing really happen."

"Really? I doubt it. Nino totally has it for you." I say and raise my eyebrow.

"Okay, okay. While Sabrina worked on her part of the project, Nino helped me out with my part, and even though I knew everything I was doing, I let him help me."

"Oooo, I totally ship you guys!" I mimic Alya.

"Stop it. He was just trying to help." She says defensively. I can tell that she's starting to blush, so I push her even further.

"I'm going to call you guys Nilya. Sounds right." I say.

"Stop! Stop it. I don't want to hear it." She says. I promise that I would text her later, and we went separate ways. I make it home at around 9. I say my goodnights and head up to bed. I'm so tired, and my brain can't function properly. This whole day was a bit much for me. I lay on my bed and Tikki comes out. I left her at home this time, which probably wasn't a good idea, but she deserves a day to herself, so I left here for the afternoon.

"I take it that you had a good day." She squeaks.

"Yeah." I tell her the gist of what happened.

"Aww, you guys are cute." She says.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm tired I'm going to bed early." I say. I get changed into my PJ's and go to bed.

Next Afternoon

Adrien's POV

"Done!" I say aloud. I've finally finished my part of the project. Chloé messaged me earlier saying that she couldn't do her part of the project and if Marinette or I could do it for her. Seriously. How is she even in in our grade?

So, now I have to do Chloé's work. I don't have Marinette's number so I can't ask her for help, not that I would. I don't know why, but I feel like she doesn't entirely like me. She is always nervous around me, and she barely ever talks to me. I can say that we're friends, but are we really? She seems like a girl I would really like to get to know.

My brain hurts so I take a break from the project and turn on the TV to see if there is anything Chat Noir can do. I first look on the news channel. It's a story about a firefighter saving a cat from a tree. I look on other channels, but just like the news, there is nothing worth my time. I finally decide to go out and do some hunting of my own. I put on a hoodie and grab Plagg, who was eating Camembert, and told him that we're leaving and we headed out for a new adventure.

"Don't you have homework you have to do?" Plagg said still irritated that I took him away from his snack.

"I needed a break. What can I say?" I whisper back. We walk around for a long while. We finally make it to the Eifel Tower and sit down. It's very surprising that there have been no akuma riots for the last two days. Ladybug and I used to be super busy fighting these guys a week ago, but now, there's nothing. Very strange indeed. I start to head home but am stopped by a bolt of lightning shot right in front of me, and a maniacal laughter sounds right behind me. I smile a little bit. Finally, some action around here. I run to a nearby alleyway to turn into Chat Noir.

Marinette's POV

I'm so bored, I finished my homework a long while ago and Alya and I have just been texting small talk, but we're not talking about anything important.

Then suddenly:

Turn on the News! There is some major heated action at the Eifel Tower. Chat vs. a guy called 'Master Electro'. I hope Ladybug shows up soon so I can video tape her and put her on my blog.

~Alya

There's an akuma at the Eifel Tower? Perfect. I know this sounds bad, but I like fighting bad guys. I like the rush of it and how it feels to be someone different. Someone who isn't clumsy, but Paris's most profound fighter and protector. Plus, I've missed Chat. Not that I would ever tell him that.

I look at Tikki, who is currently taking a nap. I walk up to her and poke her on the belly. She laughs and tells me to stop. "What is it Marinette?" Tikki asks with a yawn.

"Paris is in trouble and I need you."

"Okay, just say the words."

"Tikki! Spots on!" I shout. Tikki then gets sucked into my earing which starts my transformation. I swipe my hand in front of my face to reveal my ladybug mask. I extend my arms as a red, rubber jumpsuit covers my body and my yo-yo appears on my hip. I move around and do some movements to insure that I'm comfortable, and in a flash I'm out of the window and racing through Paris.

I can hear the battle before I can see it. It sounds like a thunderstorm has covered the city, but there were no clouds in the sky. The hair on the back of my neck stands up and I immediately know that I'm super close.

Suddenly I see a familiar black cat is spiraling right for me. I had no time to react. "Oh no…" Is all that comes out of my mouth so we collide in a very solid crash.

We land on the ground with a thud. "Ow." I say as I rub my head. I look at Chat who appears not to be moving. Oh my gosh. He's not breathing! I crawl up to him and open his eyes. His eyes are rolled to the back of his head. I start to panic. I know what I have to do… CPR. I get to work. I tilt his head back and open his airway. I start pumping at his chest, up and down. After the first few I hear a crack from his ribs and I flinch. Sorry Chat.

After I counted 30 pumps I commenced the mouth to mouth procedure. I pinch his nose and give 3 hard, long huffs of air, and I start pumping his chest again. After my second attempt of trying to bring him back to life, I start hyperventilating and crying. 'Don't you die on me!' I scream at myself. I go for mouth to mouth again. Suddenly, pressure forms around my lips. I'm super confused on what happening until I open my eyes to see Chats eyes focused deeply on mine. I just stare back at him. My cheeks go deep red when I realize what type of situation we're in. I remove my lips from his. He takes a deep gasp of air and wheezes.

"Don't move. I broke some of your ribs." I say, purposely disregarding what just happened. I am so relieved. I'm so glad he's back, but he should be more careful. I pick him up and take him out of harm's way. "I'm putting you here so you can transform back. As soon as that happens, call the ambulance. Don't move. I'll take care of him." As a reply, Chat gives a moan of retaliation.

I can't stand this any longer. Whoever did this to him is going to pay! No, not the victim, Hawk Moth. I mumble curses under my breath. I zip away before Chat could make any painful unhuman gurgles of protest. I see him right away. A man in a black suit with lightning symbols on his sides. He is holding a tool, like a screw driver. He shoots some lightning at a stop light. It instantly stops working and the akumatized man screeched in pleasure.

He catches glance of me swinging toward him and shoots lightning at me. I move away just in time before it hits me. I speed around him as fast as I can in a zig zag formation so he couldn't shoot me. I can see his lips moving, but I can't hear what he's saying. I'm deaf, I can't hear anything but my blood flowing in my ears.

"Enough!" I yell. In blind rage I take out my yo-yo and aim for his feet. I grab his feet and pull. He falls strait on his back and before he regains his posture, I grab his screw driver and hit it with my yo-yo, making it crack in two. The akuma flies out.

"No more evil doing for you little akuma. Time to de-evilize!" I shout. Before the black butterfly got any further, I catch it into my yo-yo. I touch the yo-yo and set it free.

The man who's lying down before me is an electrician, probably in his mid 40's.

"Sir, what made you so upset?" I ask, not really caring for his life story, I just pliantly listen to him. The only thing I got out of it was that he was working for this lady who wouldn't stop nagging him. He also had a lot of other stuff to do today as well. The stress and everything just made him pop.

I tell him that everything was fine now and that if he was ever too stressed he should just call it a sick day.

As soon as I made sure he was fine, I raced to the place where Chat was. I looked down and he was still there, unconscious. Why didn't he transform back? He should have! Maybe the pain was too much for him and he just passed out. I don't know what to do. I can't de-transform him.

I get an idea. It's a longshot but he's helped Tikki when she was sick, maybe he can help Chat too. I carefully pick him up. Oof, he's heavy. Quickly and gently, I carry him to the old man who helped out Tikki. I don't remember his name, but he can work miracles. I knock on his door. After a few minutes, the old man opened the door with a smile. His smile vanishes as soon as he sees Chat.

"Get inside. Quickly." He states motioning us in. He points to an empty spot on the ground and I lay him there. He pushes me aside gently.

"Ms. Ladybug, I'll need to ask you to leave this room. I already know his identity, but you mustn't find out. At least not yet." He says. He pushes me out of the room and closes the door. I put my ear on the wall. I hear nothing. I step away from the door and look down. A flash of green light suddenly appears through the creaks of the door. Chat must have changed form. I wait for an hour hearing random drums and noises that I would hear in a circus show. This was a bad idea. I should have taken him to an actual hospital, not this weird man who knows our akumas and our real selves. Better to know that he'll live than not know his identity.

Suddenly, there was pure silence. I start getting nervous until the old man comes out. He looks at me and gives me a smile. "He'll be just fine. In fact, it will be like he's never gotten hurt." He says.

I give a very deep sigh. Thank goodness. Not only has this man healed my friend, but make him perfect. It's a miracle. Maybe too much of a miracle. I'm suspicious, but I trust him. I thank him and he tells me that he'll take him home. Okay, that's a bit weird but, I can't do anything about it. I wish him luck and I run home, thinking about Chat the whole way.


	4. Chapter 5- Forgetful

The next morning

Adriens POV

I open my eyes slowly as I wake up from my sleep. I look up at the ceiling, the one I know so well. I feel my sheets around me. How am I here, at home? I passed out in the alleyway. Everything comes flooding back. My battle with Master Electro. He hit me on my side. I was flying, then I hit a person, who I'm pretty sure was Ladybug. It went black after that. I remember seeing Ladybug kissing me. Kissing me? No, it was CPR. I know because my chest hurt. The pain was unbearable. Ladybug was also crying.

I feel my chest and slowly sit up. That's strange, I feel no pain. 'Was it all a dream?' I wonder. I look out of my bedroom window. It's still dark out. I look at my alarm and it says its almost 1 am. It was 6 o'clock the last time I checked. Time passed quickly.

I turn on my TV, and the latest battle was on the News. Yeah, it wasn't a dream. This was all so weird. That means Ladybug saved my life! She cares about me. And we… kissed. It was the magic of our kiss that saved me! Like sleeping beauty, where the prince woke the girl with a kiss, except, I would be the princess, and instead of sleeping, I was badly wounded. No, that's impossible. But, how was I healed?

"Up already huh?" My black cat kwami said as the floated behind me.

"Yeah." I say. "How did I get here? How was I healed?" I ask Plagg.

"Ladybug saved you. She gave you CPR and brought you back to life. She also gave you mouth to mouth." He says and covers his mouth to hold in a laugh.

"Yeah yeah, I remember that." I say a blush forming on my cheeks. So that did happen! I feel so good right now. I mean, sure I was close to death, but hey, she "kissed" me right?

"How did I get healed?"

"Ladybug carried you to an old geezer who knows how to deal with us kwami. He's also a doctor, but he uses magic instead of surgical tools. It was good thinking on her part to take you to him." He says as he sits on my shoulder. I look out of the window. She saved my life. The next time I see her, I'm going to give her a kiss. A real one. On the lips if I can, but the cheek will do.

"You should go get some more sleep." Plagg says. "You still have school tomorrow, and a sudden absence would be difficult to explain to your dad." He's right. I don't want my teacher to contact my dad about any of my absences, sense I've told her that all of them had to do with a photo shoot, when they weren't. If dad found out I was skipping class, he would freak.

I agree and go back to bed. I sleep with blank, black dreams.

That morning

Marinette's POV.

I feel pretty good. I got up on time and had actual had breakfast with my family. Now, although everything this morning went well, I was uneasy and grieved. I was worried about Chat mostly. Did the old man really heal him? Did you take him home? Is Chat okay? Questions like these kept crossing my mind continually throughout the whole morning. I get to school extra early. So early that not even Alya was there yet.

I set my stuff down in our regular early morning meeting place and wait for her. Slowly the school started gaining life again from the voices of the students filling the hallways. I take out my sketch pad. My mind wanders from design to design. I finally decide on making a Chat themed outfit. Wow, I'm super Chat crazed today.

I look up from my work and see Alya walking towards me.

"Hey! What's up?" I ask.

"Girl, you will not believe this. Ladybug kissed Chat!" She says excitedly as she starts to turn on her phone to show me a video. I widen my eyes. Did she just totally just disregard the fact that I was giving Chat CPR? That wasn't kissing! I was saving his life! I don't even want to watch the video. I look anyway.

The video started with me giving Chat mouth to mouth. I mean, if this is all that she saw, I get why she thinks we kissed.

"Oh and although I didn't videotape it, Ladybug totally took down Master Electro. She was so cool to watch. She was so fast and she didn't even use her Lucky Charm!" She says and goes on and on. I didn't see the need at the time to use my lucky charm. I usually use it when I run out of ideas. It's just that my first idea worked so I didn't need to. I'm now glad that I didn't use it because then I wouldn't have been able to take Chat away to the magic man.

"The fight was probably the fastest one yet. Then again, I think she was mad at the fact that he hurt Chat. As soon as she defeated him she ran back to the unconscious Chat in an alleyway and took him away." She says. "How romantic don't you think?"

"You think Ladybug taking Chat away for help is romantic?" I ask baffled at what she just said.

"No, it's just, I think it's cute that she held him very close when she flew away from him. They are totally meant for each other." I role my eyes. Romance was the last thing on my mind during the whole event. We hear the bell ring and we head to our first class.

Nino and Adrien are already in their seats when we come it. If there was any face to cheer me up and shift my mood, it was Adrien, but even then, I only gave him a sad small smile when he waved at me. He must have seen my unusual behavior because when I passed him he grabs my arm gently.

"Hey, are you okay?" Adrien asks.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine." I lie. Then Adrien does something totally unexpected.

"Can I have your phone number?" He asks. My eyes widen. Did I just hear him correctly? M-my number?

Adrien laughs. "Yeah, your number. Please? Unless you don't want to." He says.

"W-why?" I squeak.

"F-for the project." He says. Oh yeah. The project. I forgot about that. "Plus I need the details for the pizza party tomorrow." He says. Oh yeah. The party. I forgot about that too. I take Adrien's phone and put my number in.

"Wait a party? With pizza? You never told me about this!" Alya says. Yep, another thing I forgot.

"I-I was going to invite you too. I promise!" I say and put my hands up in defense. "You too Nino. I want you to come too." I say to Nino.

"A party? With pizza? I'm totally down for this. When and where is it?" He replies.

"It's at my house tomorrow afternoon." I say. I look at our little group. I finally feel better. I'm so glad for such good friends.

"Ohh Adrien!" A shrilled voice sounds. Instantly my good mood is gone.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't do the project. It was just too boring. You understand right?" Chloé asks Adrien. I like how even though I'm part of the group, Chloé doesn't even come to me for anything. I role my eyes. I can't take her right now. I make it to my seat and sit down. I watch as Chloé plays kiss-up to Adrien. The teacher comes into class and tells everyone to take their seats.

"I hope that you guys met and worked on your project recently! I'm excited to see what you guys are going to show me. This is a free period. If you guys are already done, good for you, but for everyone else, please use this time wisely." She says.

I relax. I already did all of my work. I don't need to do anything else. Hopefully Chloé and Adrien did their part.

Adrien turns around and taps my desk.

"Hey, so, I finished my part of the project last night, but Chloé texted me last night and asked if we could do it instead." He says. I moan in response. More work?

"So we're going to work on it?" I ask. He nods his head and I role my eyes. I sigh and pause for a bit.

"Okay. Let's do it." I say. I stand up and pick up my bag. Adrien beams and follows close behind me. We then spend the rest of class doing Chloe's part of the project. It wasn't completely bad sense I was with Adrien, but it was annoying.

"Seriously, I'm just going to tell the teacher Chloé hasn't done squat on this project." I tell Adrien.

"Well, I'm not going to stop you. I think that we should tell her." Adrien says packing up. We didn't finish, but we will on Friday before the party.

"Why are you and Chloé friends? I can tell that you don't share the same feelings as I do, but I think you still don't entirely like her." I say.

"She was my only friend before, so I feel like I have to still have to. She does irritate me at times, but she only has Sabrina. Everyone else hates her, so I want to be there for her. Wouldn't you want that if you were in her shoes?" He asks. My brain explodes when he says that. It's true that everyone hates her, and that she only has one friend. I would like a guy friend too if I was practically alone, even if it was my fault. If I get down to it, Chloé is called the bully, but in reality, the rest of us are bullying Chloé.

I look down. I feel bad now. I have a bigger respect for Chloé. She gets ridiculed by her peers, and no one trusts her, but she is still strong and is more confident than I could ever wish to be in my entire life.

We don't talk for the rest of the time. The bell rings and he says he'll text me later and we go our separate ways. The rest of the day passes quickly. During the lunch break I inform my parents about the pizza party that we'll be hosting tomorrow. Luckily my dad isn't busy tomorrow so he'll be able to make his best pizzas. I mention that Adrien was coming and they start to freak out a little, but they calmed down quickly.

After that the day passed real fast. I'm home for the day when Adrien texts me.

 **What time should I come over tomorrow for the project?**

 **~Adrien**

I look at my phone closely. I kind of disremembered that he now has my phone number. I start to have a total mental breakdown when Tikki comes up to me.

"What's wrong?" She asks. The instant she saw my face she recognizes the situation. "It's about Adrien isn't it?"

I nod my head and point my phone at her. "I don't know what to say back!" I say.

"Just be natural. When do you want him to come over?"

"Well, right after school would be best." I say

"Then tell him just that." Tikki says. My fingers glide across my phone as I made the following message:

 **You can come home with me right after school if that's okay.**

 **~Marinette.**

I hit send and await his answer. In less than a minute he replies:

 **Sounds good. When will Alya and Nino join us?**

 **~Adrien**

 **Around 5 p.m.**

 **~Marinette.**

 **Okay. See you then!**

 **~Adrien**

I take a deep breath. Why was that so hard even though the conversation was so short. I put my phone down and try to relax.

"See. It wasn't that bad!" Tikki says. I groan. Uggg, I can't handle this. I have to make this party perfect for Adrien sense it is his first one. I'm dedicated. I message Nino and Alya about the time and start getting ready for the party.


	5. Chapter 6- To Marinette's House We Go

Friday afternoon

"Are you excited Marinette?" Tikki asks me as we head back to school after our lunch break.

"For the party? Of course I'm excited." I say. I'm also really nervous, but I don't tell her that.

"I think, for what I can tell, you and Adrien are finally friends! You're just one step closer to becoming a couple." She says as she floats around my head.

"Tikki! Be careful. Someone can see you."

"Don't worry. I can take care of myself." She says as she flies into my bag.

I agree with Tikki. Adrien and I are friends now, and I don't stutter around him very much anymore. The thing I'm more worried about is that we might only remain friends, and I'll be totally friend-zoned, forever.

I walk onto the school campus and see Alya with Nino. I stroll over.

"Hey guys." I say.

"Hey Mari!" Nino says.

"Hey girl. What's up?" Alya asks me.

"Nothing much. I just finished getting ready for tonight." I answer.

"Nice! I can't wait! If there is anything I like more than music, it's pizza!" Nino says and hugs himself. Alya and I laugh. Nino is a very goofy and funny kid. He's never boring, and I like it when he's around. We've been friends sense we were little. Alya and Nino have been getting along too, especially after the zoo situation earlier in the school year.

"You guys talking about the party?" Adrien asks, coming up behind me. He puts his arm around my shoulder and gives a smile. I instantly go stiff and my face blooms red. Never in my life have I ever thought he would ever do that.

Alya snickers. "Yeah we are." She says trying hard not to laugh at me. No doubt about it, I'm mega blushing.

"Oh man I'm so excited! My dad finally allowed me to go because I said that I was going to Marinette's house for the history project." Adrien says as he releases his hold around my shoulders.

"But isn't that lying?" Nino asks.

"No. Marinette invited me to come over early so we could work a little bit on the project." Adrien says. Alya was drinking some water, and when Adrien said that, I could see that she was about to split it out, but swallowed it before it could escape. She starts to cough heavily.

"Um. Marinette? *cough* Can I talk to you? In private?" Alya asks. She leads me away from the boys, far enough that they can't hear us.

"You didn't tell me he was coming to your place early!" Alya says. "You said you would tell me when you guys hang out on your own remember?"

"Hehe, yeah. I guess I did. It's just, I thought it wouldn't count since you guys would be coming later." I justify. Alya huffs and crosses her arms.

"I'm happy for you. But, girl, you need to tell me everything that happens when I get there." She says and points at me sternly.

"I-I promise." I say

"Did you hide all of Adrien's photos you have on your walls?" Alya asks

"Of course. That would be so embarrassing." I answer.

"Good." She says. She starts to smile and grabs my hands excitedly and takes me back to the boys.

"You guys good?" Nino asks.

"Yup. Everything is great!" Alya says.

The school bell rings and we go to class. Alya and I share the same class, so we say goodbye to Adrien and Nino and head off. We're in our gym class, but today was pretty bland. We were in the classroom and watched a video about physical health, and how 'You are what you eat'.

"I hope you guys payed attention because you will have a test next class about everything you've just seen in the video." The coach says when the video ended. I expected this. It's very rare in this class that we would watch a video for no reason, so I'm glad I took good notes.

At that, class ends and Alya and I head to History where we meet up with Adrien and Nino.

"How was gym?" Adrien asks.

"It was okay. It was a bit boring though." I say

"Aww man. I have gym tomorrow. I was hoping that we would do something fun." Adrien says. Aww. He's so cute when he complains.

"Don't worry. All you do is watch a video." Alya says

"Good, I would much rather watch a video than do notes." Adrien says. I should probably tell him that we're also going to have a test next class, and that he should take at least some notes. Nah.

History class starts, but yet again, we get to work on the project. Since Adrien and I are going to work on the project at my house, we decide to make it a free period. I work on some homework from my other classes and Adrien is on his laptop, probably also doing homework. I look at him constantly, and each time, I get more nervous about tonight.

'It'll be fine. He's just coming over for the party and the project, nothing more.' I say to myself. I calm myself down and focus back at my work.

Adrien's POV

The final bell rings and it's time to go home. I have been waiting anxiously for that bell to ring all day. I put my laptop in my bag and look at Marinette who is doing the same.

"Are you ready to go?" She asks.

"Oh yeah. Way more than ready." I reply. I'm so glad that she's letting me come to her place. I know I've already been there before, but I'm still excited. It's going to be my mission tonight to become a closer friend with her.

"Alright. Let's go." She says as she starts to lead the way.

There was some awkward silence between us for a bit as we walked so I try some small talk. "So, have you come up with any fashion design ideas recently?" I ask.

"A few." She replies.

"Like what?"

"Um, well." She pauses. "The only thing that I've really been able to have inspiration from is Chat Noir." Ohho, so she's a Chat fan? Well, isn't this interesting. I like her even more already.

"Do you think I can see the designs?" I ask.

"Maybe, at my house. It's a big maybe though." She replies. At that, the conversations dies. I try something else.

"So, you're a Chat fan?" I ask.

"Well, kind-of." She says.

"What do you mean by 'kind-of?" I ask.

"Well, to be straight forward, I think he's cocky, ignorant, and sometimes self-absorbed, but he's also kind, funny, and selfless." She says abruptly. Okay, so she just totally dissed me, but she also complemented me. I'll just ignore the insults.

"Huh, I agree with you on the kind, funny, and selfless part. I also see him as a very confident guy. He seems like a really cool dude." I say.

"Huh, yeah." She replies mockingly. 'Oh, so we have a sassy one here?' I say to myself.

"So you're a Chat fan?" She asks.

"Uh, yeah. I guess so, but more like a supporter." I say. "I like Ladybug much more though." I say. Marinette flinches at that.

"Y-you like Ladybug?" She asks.

'Y-yeah. I do. She's super cool." I reply and scratch the back of my neck.

"Oh uh, m-me too." She says. At that, we don't talk the rest of the way.

We walk into the Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie (the bakery) and Marinette calls out, "Mom! Dad! I'm home, and Adrien is here too." Mrs. Dupain-Cheng was working at the cash register while Mr. Dupain-Cheng was working at the oven. There were no customers in the shop so it was mildly quiet.

"Oh good. How was school?" Mrs. Dupain-Cheng asks us.

"It was good. We're just going to head upstairs okay." Marinette inquires.

"Alright, but here, take a cookie or two okay." Mr. Dupain-Cheng says as he presents a plate of cookies to Marinette and I. I look at them with awe. Last time I was here was for practicing for the video competition, and I got to try some of their cookies. I fell in love with them at my first bite. I've been wanting them for a while.

"We're good dad. But thanks anyway." Marinette says. She starts to head upstairs.

"A-actually sir. Would it be okay if I could have one?" I ask eyeing the wonderful chocolate chip cookies in front of me.

"Absolutely. Take as much as you want. There are plenty." He says. I grab three.

"Thank you Mr. Dupain-Cheng." I say. I give him my signature smile and follow Marinette upstairs.

"Your parents are awesome." I say and take a bite of one of the cookies. Oh this is heavenly.

"Yeah, I guess so." Marinette states. We go up two flights of stairs into Marinette's room. The first thing I notice is the overwhelming bright pink that is covering the walls. The room is tidy and organized. Her bed is nicely made in the corner, and next to that is her white work desk. I put my backpack on the ground and find a loose chair and move towards the work desk.

"Okay, so where should we start?" Marinette asks as she sits in her rolling desk chair. I grab out some papers and we start working on Chloé's part of the project.

We work on the project in awkward silent for a while. I can't stand it anymore so I decide to make a bold statement.

"You know. I'm glad I was paired up with you." I say. Marinette looks at me, and stares at me, contemplating something.

"Y-you are? Why?" She asks.

"Well, you make it fun. You practically know everything, and you get your work done. Even if I was paired up with Nino, we probably wouldn't have done as much as you and I have." I say. I look at Marinette, and she's staring back at me, a slight blush forms on her cheeks. I think it's cute when she does that. She gets flustered so easily. I give her a small smile.

"Th-Thanks." She stutters and looks back at her work.

"Hey, weird question, but, can I call you Mari?" I ask.

She looks me in the eyes and blushes again, and stammers, "Y-yeah. Sure." She says. We stare into each other's eyes in silence for a while. For the first time, I notice her bluebell eyes. They look beautiful, but oddly familiar. She brakes eye contact and we finish the rest of the project in silence.

I look at the time and it's almost 5 p.m. We aren't going to have enough time to go through a run-through of the presentation tonight. We'll need to schedule another day to do it.

"Hey, Mari. I want to practice presenting this before next week." I say.

"Yeah." She says. She looks around her desk, trying to find something. She looks through her backpack and grabs out a schedule.

"I'm free tomorrow after school." She says. Perfect.

"Sounds good. It'll be at my place though, since we came here this time." I say.

"Okay." She says and smiles. We jump a little when Marinette's door on the floor abruptly flips opens. A few moments later, Alya's head pops up.

"Hey guys!" She says. Right after her Nino comes up as well.

"Who's ready to party?" Nino asks, totally over-excitedly. I stand up and walk over to him and we fist bump. "Hey man what's up?" Nino asks.

"Nothing much." I say.

"Hanging with Mari. Sweet dude." He says and gives me a wink.

"Shut up." I say. I look at Marinette whose talking with Alya. Marinette is blushing again, and Alya is teasing her over something.

"Dude, do you have something for Mari?" Nino asks me.

"Uh, n-no. W-where just friends. I just thought of something." I lie and put my hands up in defense

"Uh huh." Nino says, while scratching his fake beard.

"Who's ready for some pizza?" Mr. Dupain-Cheng asks as he comes up to join us.

"Oh yeah, I am!" Nino says.

"Me too, Mr. Dupain-Cheng!" I say. Oh, yes! Pizza! I can't wait.

"Alright you two follow me." He says. I look at Mari and Alya and wave them over. We head down into the bakery, and instantly, the smell of baked bread and cheese fills my nose and I start to drool.


	6. Chapter 7- A Christmas Tree and A Movie

Marinette's POV

We've gone through two pizzas' when we all head back upstairs.

"I don't know about you guys, but I think it's time for some music." Alya says. She heads to my desk and plugs her phone into my computer. She types something into her phone and Christmas music starts to sound.

"Christmas music?" Nino asks.

"Yeah, well, winter break is coming closer, and so is Christmas." Alya says.

"I'm all for it. I love Christmas." I say. I really do. I have my own small, fake Christmas tree I set up in my room every year. I would have it up now, but mom said I couldn't.

"Eh, Christmas is okay." Adrien says.

"You don't like Christmas?" Nino asks Adrien.

"It's not my absolute favorite holiday. My dad is always busy and I'm mostly by myself. Usually, The Mayor would invite us to dinner and we would attend that, but that's it." Adrien says.

"No Christmas tree? No presents?" Alya asks.

"We do have a tree, but we don't decorate it like other families do. We do gift exchanges during breakfast, but it's not a huge ordeal." He says.

"Well, that is no good. You've never decorated a tree." I say. I get an idea. I run downstairs. "Mom. Can I please set up my tree now?" I ask, and tell her what happened upstairs.

Not even five minutes later, I'm climbing up my stairs with my small imitation of a Christmas tree in tow.

I set the box on the ground. It's not very big, probably four feet tall when put together, but it's still good.

"Adrien, let me teach you the term, Christmas decorating." I say as I tap the box.

"We're going to decorate your tree?" Adrien asks.

"Yup. We have the Christmas music in the background, and we're on the topic, so why not?" I reply.

"Yea, why not?" Alya shrugs. She takes the box and starts to open it. Nino helps Alya take the tree out and they start to put it together. Adrien slowly meanders towards me.

"You realize, that you having me decorate your tree, half of your ornaments will be destroyed by the end." He whispers.

"Don't worry, the ones I put on this tree are plastic." I reply.

"Alright…done." Alya says, the little green tree standing up tall beside her. She dusts her hands off and looks approvingly at me, a smile of satisfaction across her face.

"So, how about the decorations?" Nino asks.

"Right here." I say. I walk across the room to my closet. I move some stuff around and discover my multi-colored plastic ornaments that I haven't seen for a year. I take them out and bring them towards everyone and set them down next to the tree.

"So, how does this work?" Adrien asks.

"Like this." I say. I reach into my ornament box and grab a red ornament. I then find a place on the tree, and hang it. "That easy."

"Really? There is no technique?" Adrien asks.

"Oh, for Pete's sake." Nino says, he grabs an ornament out of the box and starts decorate the tree. Alya does the same.

"Okay, I guess not." Adrien says. He stands next to me and I give him his first ornament. He hangs it. Light and excitement enter into his emerald eyes, and he goes for another. Soon enough the whole tree is covered in red, gold, blue, and silver bulbs. Lights were already manufactured into the tree. I plug the tree into an outlet and watch the tree come to life. We step back from our work.

"Something is missing." Alya says. I look at the tree. We have the bulbs, we have the lights, what could we be missing? OH! I run back to the closet. After rummaging through cloths and old art projects, I pull out a small golden star, covered in mini, fake crystals.

"Who should put it on?" Nino asks.

"I think Adrien should. It's his first time." I say. Nino and Alya nod their heads in approval. Adrien stares blankly at me.

"Me? Put it on?" Adrien asks timidly.

"Yeah dude." Nino asks and pats him on the back. I give him the star, and he stares at it for a while. The Christmas music fills the room and we stare at him.

Alya breaks the silence with a small laugh. "Common. Put it up!" She says. Adrien looks at her, then at me. We stare at each other for a bit, then he looks at the tree. He walks to the tree and slowly puts it on, gingerly. He steps back, and we all clap approvingly.

"Nice job man." Nino says as he wraps one of his arms around Adrien. We all step back and look at our just finished project. I look at Alya, then Nino, then Adrien. I wish this moment could last forever.

"Who else feels like eating cookies?" Nino says randomly.

"I do!" Alya says. Together Alya and Nino head back downstairs, leaving me and Adrien alone.

"So, how did it feel to finally decorate a Christmas tree?" I ask.

"It felt good." He says. "Why did you want me to put on the tree topper?" He asks.

I walk over to my bed and sit down. "Well, you've never done it before, so I thought you would like to do it."

Adrien comes over and sits next to me. We sit in silence for a while.

"Thanks." Adrien says. I look up at Adrien and we stare at each other. His emerald eyes are fixed on mine intensely. He glances down, but quickly brings them back up. His eyes show passion, and shyness.

"Ahem." I jump five feet into the air when I hear Alya fake cough. She and Nino are at the entrance of the room snickering. I blush harder than I ever have in my life.

` "Aw man. You shouldn't have said anything. We might have had some entertainment." Nino says. I look at Adrien and he's blushing just as hard as I am. I laugh at myself and look at Alya. I get up and walk to her.

"What was that all about?" Alya asks.

"Nothing." I say.

"Nothing? You call that nothing? You guys were this close to kissing!" She says. She holds up her fingers an inch apart. Were we really that close? Did we have a moment? I turn around and see Nino making fun of Adrien, and they laugh.

I turn back to Alya and grab her hands. "I need to tell you something." I say.

"What?" She asks.

"Follow me." I say as I drag her back downstairs to the kitchen.

"I'm going to Adrien's house tomorrow." I say. Alya just gapes at me.

"After what just happened?" She asks.

"Yes. We're meeting at his house to work on the project." I reply. "And why does what just happened matter? Nothing happened!"

"Oh yes something occurred between you two. I saw the sparks fly." She says and wiggles her eyebrows.

"Shut up." I say. "This is why I don't really want to tell you these things."

"Okay, okay. I'll stop." She says. The boys meet us downstairs and we turn on the TV.

"Who wants to watch a movie?" I ask as I grab the television remote.

"I do, but nothing Christmas. I'm kind of done with Christmas right now." Nino says. I go to the shelves next to the television screen. "We have all of these. You guys are the guests, so you guys get the choose, but everyone has to agree." I say.

All three of the gather around the shelves and start considering their movie choices. We all settled with the movie The Dark Knight. I put it in and we all sit on the couch. I purposely sit the furthest away from Adrien, with Alya and Nino in the center. By halfway through the movie, I look over at Alya and Nino, and they were snuggling with each other. It's so cute, I wish I could take a picture. I feel envious though. I want to snuggle too, and all I have right now, is a couch throw pillow. I look at Adrien, who's watching the movie.

I poke Alya on the side, and give her a thumbs up. She swats my hand and mouths 'Stop.' I laugh internally. My throat suddenly gets really parched, so I get up and go to the kitchen and get a glass of water. I remember that I forgot my phone upstairs in my room so I quickly run up to go get it.

"How's everything going?" Tikki asks.

"It's going well." I reply.

"I think it's going way more than well. I think it's going fantastic. I watched the whole thing Marinette. You and Adrien got super close." She says.

"Oh yeah. But nothing happened." I retort.

"If Alya didn't interrupt, I bet something would have happened." She says giggling.

"Yeah, no." I say. "I'll see you in a bit." I grab my phone and head back downstairs.

When I get back down, I see Adrien sitting in my spot, and Alya and Nino have moved over. I tilt my head in question.

I walk up to Adrien, "Hey, you're in my seat." I whisper.

"You don't have a name on it. And plus, move your feet, lose your seat." He says.

"And, what was wrong with your seat?" I ask.

"Nothing, it's just, it looked more fun over here." He replies. I don't really want to do it, but I sit to next to him. Luckily, Alya was sitting to my right, so I wasn't totally sandwiched by the guys. We continue to watch the movie, and suddenly, Adrien yawns, and stretches his arms, and puts his arm on the back of my couch cushion. I start to blush. 'Is he trying to hit on me?' I ask myself. That's as far as he goes for the rest of the movie. By the time the movie was over, I was much closer to Alya than I was with Adrien. I wanted to be closer to Adrien, but I was just too nervous around him still. I look at Nino and Alya, and they fell asleep on each other. Aww, if they don't get together after today, I'm going to be ticked.

I hear a creek from a door and turn to see Mom and Dad waving me over.

When I get to them Mom says "Honey, it's time for your friends to go home. It's a school nigh."

I take out my phone and look at the time, and it reads 9:30. "Alright." I say. I walk over to Alya and Nino and shake them awake. "Hey guess, it's 9:30, party's over." I say.

Alya wakes up and gets off of Nino and stretches. Nino, Alya, and Adrien all get off of the couch and all of us head down to the bakery together.

"Thank you for having us come by Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng." Nino says.

"Yeah. And the pizza was delicious." Adrien says.

"You guys can come by at any time. Get home safely!" Dad says.

"We will. We'll see you tomorrow Mari!" Nino says. Alya gives me a hug goodbye and Nino and Alya leave. Adrien thanks my parents for letting him come over again, and turns to me.

"I'll see you tomorrow. Okay?" He asks me.

"Y-yeah. I'll see you tomorrow." I say. He starts to head out, but stops and waves at me. I wave back and look back at my parents. They're looking at me, hugging each other, with an approving smile.

"He's a charming young man." Dad states.

"He most certainly is." Mom says. I roll my eyes. "Good night." I say and head back upstairs without saying another word with a blush on my cheeks and a smile on my face. I couldn't have wished for this night to be any better.


	7. Chapter 8- Fighting With A God!

Next day after school

Marinette's POV

I finish packing my bag for tonight and head for the balcony. In the distance there are some ominous clouds, and I start to worry. I go to my desk and check out the weather forecast. It said that there is a 75% chance it could rain tonight. I go through my desk draw and pull out my umbrella and put it into my shoulder bag.

"Are you preparing for tonight?" Tikki asks me.

"Yeah. Is there anything you want to me to bring for you?" I ask her.

"You're going to bring me this time?" She asks excitedly.

"Yeah, of course. The only reason I left you last time is because you deserved a break."

"Well, that break was very nerve racking. What if there was an akuma attack then? You wouldn't have been able to transform." She says.

"Yeah, but there wasn't. So it was fine, but that is what I'm worried about this time. There wasn't an akuma attack yesterday, so I bet there is going to be one today." I say.

"Good choice." Tikki says. I pick up my bag and Tikki flies in. I head downstairs and tell my parents that I'm heading out.

"Do you have an umbrella?" Mom asks.

"Yes, I do." I say.

"Here, take these. They're a snack for you and Adrien to share." Dad says and hands me a bag of chocolate chip cookies.

"Thanks, I'll make sure he has one." I say. "I'll see you guys tonight!" I give them hugs and walk out of the bakery.

I've been walking for a while and dark clouds were beginning to form. It starts to drizzle and I pull out my umbrella. In a matter of a few seconds, the wind picked up and it started to pour, hard. The umbrella was utterly useless because the rain was curved at an angle, I was already completely drenched. I start to run to a coffee shop, but am stopped by a scream. Oh great, don't tell me.

I look around to see who screamed. I scan the area and see that a flood was starting to form in the middle of the street. It reached up to my ankles quickly. I have to get out of here. I head towards the side of the building where an emergency ladder lead to the roof, and I climb it. Once I reached the top I look at the flood. Quickly, and suddenly the rain completely stopped, but the flood was continuing to grow.

I few bubbles started to form in the center, but swiftly turned into a geyser. It all happened so suddenly I had no time to change into Ladybug. I back away from the edge.

"Tikki. Spots on!" I shout. In a flash, I was Ladybug. I look back down at the flood, but instead of the geyser being in the center, a man was walking on the rising flood of water. He's wearing a grey suite with a shark fin, and is carrying a trident.

"I am Poseidon! You will all bow before me! Show respect of the water that you depend on!" He shouts. Oh, so now I'm dealing with a Greek God? Man, Hawk Moth is not able to come up good nick-names of his own, so now he's copy writing? So lame.

He then raises his arms and a wave of water rises from the flood. He then thrashes it at a nearby building, and breaks the windows and invades the residence in it. Okay, I've been on stand-by long enough. I run towards him, jumping building to building. I make a wrong move and slip with a hard thud. Poseidon turns and looks at me.

"Well, well. If it isn't our little favorite insect?" He says.

I rub my scraped knee and stand back up. "Why are you doing this?" I ask.

"People don't appreciate the ocean, and the organisms living in it. I will show everyone that the ocean is better than this terrestrial world by flooding it back into the ocean!" He replies. Oh boy. He aims his trident at me and a blast of water shoots at me, but I dodge it with ease.

"Give up. You can't even get close to me! If you touch my water, you'll be under my control. Make it easy for me and give me your miraculous!" He says.

"Nope, not in a million years." I mutter. Do I have to say this over and over again?

I start running around him on neighboring buildings, observing him, looking for where his akuma might be. I watch him touch his neck. If one wasn't paying attention, it would look like he was scratching his neck, but he was actually playing with his necklace. A shark tooth necklace. That's it. That's where it is.

"Well hello princess." I voice purrs behind me. I don't turn around. I just give him a quick side-glance.

"Hey Chat. Good to see you again. How are you feeling?" I ask.

"I'm good, all thanks to you." He says. "Thanks for saving my life. You went as far as giving me mouth to mouth." I tense up. He remembers that? I roll my eyes and look at him. "Don't think of it as anything. I was trying to save you. I did it because I had to." I say.

"Call it what you want, but I'll always take it as a sign that you like me." He says, his tail wagging. I sigh.

"Okay, back to work. His akuma is in his shark tooth necklace. He's really slow at shooting, so that shouldn't really be a huge problem." I say.

"Ugg, I hate water." Chat remarks. Together we jump down and run towards Poseidon. He points his trident as us and we split up. I try out the water to see if I could step on it too, but I fall strait through. I can't get him while he's in his puddle, we'll need him to go where water can't reach. Upward.

"Hey, water isn't all that great, you can't even get me up here!" Chat says. He must be thinking the same thing. Poseidon attempts to fire his water bullets at Chat, but each and every time, he missed. I can see the steam coming out of his ears. While Chat is distracting him I try to think of a plan. I look around, there is nothing nearby that my yo-yo can really latch onto. Think Marinette, think!

I don't want to use it so early into this match, but I'm forced to use it.

"Lucky charm!" I shout and throw my yo-yo into the air. There was a flash of light, and a fishing pole appears into my hands. I can hear Chat in the back of my mind saying a stupid fishing pun.

"Time to go fishing." I mumble. Did I just make a pun? Oh gosh, Chat is starting to rub off on me.

I look around for anything that could help me. Got it. I pick up a broken piece of concrete off of the roof and throw it at Poseidon and purposely, barely miss him. That has to have gotten his attention. He quickly turns around, and his eyes go wide. He realizes what I'm planning to do and starts to run away.

"Chat! Jump towards him. Be ready!" I shout. I quickly cast the line towards Poseidon's fin. It attaches and I start to reel in and stop him from moving. We have a tussle of pulling while I wait for Chat to get to Poseidon. Chat pounces above the water and lands on the phony god and rips his necklace off his neck.

"Hey! Give that back! That's mine!"

"Silly fishy, didn't you know cat's always get the fish." He says. Chat jumps of him and yells, "Cataclysm!"

When he lands he smashes the tooth with his power of destruction and the little black akuma flutters out. I chase it and release my yo-yo.

"No more evil doing for you little akuma!" I shout. "Time to de-evilize!" I then release my yo-yo and catch the butterfly mid-flight.

"Gotcha." I say. I slide my finder on the center of my yo-yo and release the now pure butterfly. "Bye-bye little butter fly." I say.

I pick up the fishing rod and throw it into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!" I shout. There was a sudden flash of white and pink and everything went back to normal, except for what remained from the rain fall. I go over to Chat.

"Pound it." We say and fist bump. Almost on cue, as soon as our fists touch, it starts to pour down rain again. I look at the man on the ground next to us. He's wearing a blue lab coat, definitely something he shouldn't be wearing in the rain. I grab him and all three of us head for shelter. Along the way he tells his life story about how he's a marine scientist, and that he fell in love with fish, and how he thought people don't appreciate fish enough, and that he was done at being laughed at by his co-workers. As soon as I helped him with his problems, Chat came up to me.

"Hey, I just want to say thanks for saving my life. I owe you one. Let's go out for a date sometime." Chat says.

"Chat, I told you the rules. Once you find out my identity, then I'll let you take me out." I say and boop him on the nose. He sighs.

"You know, you're really stubborn." He says. "That's what I really like about you." And with a wink he goes off to who knows where. I hear my earrings beep and I head out myself.

I find a bathroom where no one was around and turned back to myself. My clothes were still soaking wet, and I still had to get to Adrien's house. I groan. 'Why does this happen to me?' I ask myself. I look into my bag. I'm relieved to see that all my text books and papers are still completely dry.

I head out again, the flood the Poseidon has left behind has gone down, but the water was still to my ankles, and the rain was still falling at a constant pace, but my umbrella kept most of the water from hitting me. I shuffle through the water shivering until I get to Adrien's house. On the way I was contemplating whether if it would be better if I just go home, but Adrien's house was much closer.

I reach the front door and ring the doorbell. The camera comes out.

"Hello, why are y- Oh dear. Come right in." The female voice says. I must look absolutely horrible to get that kind of reaction from her. Great, I'm coming to see Adrien, and I just look my 'absolute best.' I groan.

The door buzzes and automatically opens. I quickly make my way in. Nathalie is at the door with a towel for me.

"Oh my dear girl, why are you walking in the rain?" Nathalie asks.

"Well, I was on my way here before it started to rain, but then it started pouring, just like it is now. My umbrella was unusable." I reply."

"Alright. I've noted to Adrien that you've arrived. Here give me your bag." He takes my bag and puts it on a nearby table. Groan

I hear the thumping of running feet upstairs, and after a few moments, Adrien is jumping the stairs, trying to get to me quickly.

"Mari! Why are you here? Its pouring out there." He says looking to see if I was okay.

"Yeah, I know it's pouring." I retort. "I was already on my way before it started to rain, and I was much closer to you than I was from home, so I came here."

"Oh Mari. You could have gotten a cold you know." He says. Just on cue, I sneeze. "Or you could already have one." He says.

"All right come with me. Nathalie, please get her a robe, a towel, and some of mom old comfortable clothes." Adrien says and starts to lead me upstairs.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

"My bathroom. You need a warm shower so you don't get a bad cold." He says.

"Oh, okay." I say. I look out a nearby window and see the weather outside. A minor flood starts to form in front of the house. It's still pouring outside, then there was a large flash of lightning and I jump. The sound was ear busting it was so loud. If this continues, I won't be able to go home.


	8. Chapter 9- When The Lights Go Out

Adrien's POV

I lead Marinette upstairs to my room, hugging/ escorting her along the way to help her get dry. She's shivering intensely, and she's starting to get a stuffy nose. I get her to the bathroom and, for some reason, she's very hesitant of going in, and I have to practically shove her in. I close the door and call to her.

"Take your time. Nathalie will come up to give you clean cloths and a dry towel. The shower is easy to figure out, and we have an endless supply of hot water." I shout from my side of the wall.

After a pause she replies "Alright."

I want to say more, but it would just be awkward, so I go to the couch and turn on the television. After a while I hear the shower turn on, and at that same time Nathalie comes in with Marinette's bag, a white towel, a robe, and some of mom's old clothing that she found.

"She's in the shower already." I say and point in that direction.

"Alright." She says, and sets Marinette's bag on the ground next to the couch I'm sitting on. She goes to the bathroom and taps on the door. "Marinette, it's me Nathalie. I have some clothes for you. Is it okay for me to come in and give them to you?" She asks.

"Y-yes." Mari replies. Nathalie opens the door, and I see a glance of Marinette. Luckily she's still in an undershirt and in her jeans, so I didn't see anything, but still. I immediately look away and I blush deeply. What if she wasn't completely dressed? What a perverted person I am! Peeking at a girl in the shower! I cover my face and walk to the other side of the room, and sit in a place out of view of the bathroom. I can watch TV when Marinette and Nathalie were done conversing.

"So Marinette's here. That's cool." Plagg says from inside my jacket and laughs.

"Shut up! I didn't mean to."

"Didn't mean to do what?" Plagg asks.

"Oh, n-nothing." I reply, glad to know he didn't know what just happened.

"Okay… hey, Adrien, is there a chance that I could get some camembert?" He asks.

I role my eyes. "Not right now Plagg. But, if you really want some, there's some in my desk." I point in the direction of the desk. Seriously, food is the only thing ever on his mind.

"Ugh, fine." He says, and he swiftly and cautiously flies towards the desk.

After a bit of time I hear the bathroom door close, and Nathalie comes up to me and smiles. "Marinette says thank you and that she won't be long." She says.

"Oh, alright." I say. Nathalie bows and heads out of the room. Once she was gone, I head back to the couch.

I'm watching the latest conference the Mayor was attending, and speaking at when I hear something unusual. At first I think it's the TV, but no one there would be singing. My second thought was that it was my phone, but no one was calling me. I blush when I realize that it was Marinette singing in the shower.

I mute the TV in curiosity. I recognize the toon, but I don't understand the words. It sounds like she's singing it in English, but I'm not entirely sure. I listen in and find myself humming the lyrics of the song. Her voice was so angelic, I fell under a spell that paralyzed my body, and forced me to listen. The spell was lifted when she finished the melody and turned the shower off.

I snap out of my thoughts and turned the volume back on. After a few minutes of watching I get bored. I would much rather listen to Marinette than watch this. I turn off the television and go to my desk. I guess I could get ready to do the project. I start getting out my stuff and I hear the opening of the bathroom. There was a burst of hot steam and Marinette walks out.

She's in some of my mom's old clothes, a plain yellow top with lace at the bottom, a pair of dark colored boot cut jeans, and a pair of white flats. Her hair was put down and had a white headband in it. I don't know if it was the lighting, or if I just had something in my eye, but I saw my mother for a quick moment. I immediately push that thought aside.

"H-hey Marinette. You better now?" I ask her.

"Yeah, I'm better. Your shower is pretty cool."  
"Oh, thanks." I say. She looks so different, and more mature in a way. This is the first time I've seen her with her hair down, and it looks great.

"You should put your hair down more often." I mention.

"You think so? I feel like it always gets in the way of everything." She replies as she goes through her hair with her fingers.

"Well, I think it makes you look nice." I say. Marinette looks at me, and ponders on something.

"Are you implying that I don't look nice regularly?" She mocks.

"N-no. You look nice all the time. It's just that I've never seen you with your hair down before." I Chuckle. I look at her and she's blushing. 'So cute.'

She looks at her bag. "Did any of my stuff get wet while on the way here?" She asks.

"Um. I don't know, I didn't check." I say. She picks up her bag.

"Oh thank goodness. Everything is okay." She says. Suddenly, there was a large flash of lightning and a roar of thunder, and Mari and I jump then the light completely shut off. I looked at Marinette, and we share the same confused, nervous expression. I get up and go to the light switches near the bedroom door. I flip them off and on a few times. I look at Marinette and shake my head. The power is completely out.

I exit the room and look down. Already, the servers were lighting candles downstairs, and some were on their way up to give the upstairs some candles too. I go back into my room, and there was another flash of lightning, a bit further away this time. The rain still continued to pour endlessly outside. I look at Marinette.

"Would you totally freak if I told you that you would have to stay here tonight?" I ask her. As a response, her eyes go a bit wide.

"Well, it doesn't look like the rain is going to stop anytime soon," I say. "and, the flood in the front is growing, so we won't be able to drive you, and you walking home in the rain, with lightning is not an option." I say. After a moment of thought, and a glance out the window, she answers, "Alright. Let me contact my parents."

She gets her phone out of her pocket and leaves the room. What a very strange turn of events. I go to the window and look outside. The roads were completely flooded in muddy water up past the sidewalk. There was an abandoned car in the middle of the road that must have gotten stuck. Yeah, no way am I going to let her walk in that.

I leave the window and go to my computer desk. I hear a tap on the door, and a few maids with lit candles come in. They set a few on the coffee table, and one on my bedside table. I have a few candles on the wall and they light those too. Once they were completely done, I was able to see everything again. I thank them and they leave.

I go through my drawers and take out my half of the completed project and put it on the coffee table. Plagg comes out with the last of the camembert I had.

"Well, this certainly is a predicament." He states and throws the foul-smelling cheese into his mouth.

"Yeah, well, what can we do?" I ask him waving the air to get rid of the smell.

"Hey, don't look at me. I'm not part of this. Though, I think it's cute that you and her will be staying together tonight." He starts to laugh, but covers his mouth.

"Stop it. It's only because she has to." I reply.

The door opens, and Plagg flies quickly into my jacket "My parents said I can stay, but I have to be back by at most ten A.M." Marinette says.

"That's reasonable." I respond. "Here, let's get started on putting the project together."

"Yeah." She says. She grabs her bag and sits in the chair next to mine. "I emailed the teacher about Chloé." She says.

"What did she say?" I ask.

"She hasn't replied, so I have no idea." She gets out a textbook and a few papers out of her bag, and lays them out in front of us. I do the same with my information.

"We should start with the timeline." I say, and we get to work. We work hard for hours. Turns out our separate work was much easier than putting it all together. We argued a lot on mostly what subjects we should put in or just leave out.

Sometime between everything we stopped and had some dinner, nothing fancy or special like last time. After that, time sped by quickly. I looked outside and it was really dark out. I look at the clock and it read 8:45. It's getting somewhat late. We finally finish the project and I give a heavy sigh.

"Finally." I mutter, and rub my eyes. I look at the clock again and it read 9:25. I look at the television, then at Marinette.

"Hey, Mari. Do you want to watch a movie? It's not too late." I ask.

She gives a large, long yawn, and a quick stretch before she replies, "Sure. What movie?"

"Whatever you want. You're the guest, you get to choose." I reply, copying what she said last night.

"Alright. Show me what you got." I take her to a closet near my bed and reveal a large wall different movies. "Wow. And I thought I have a lot of movies." She mutters and starts looking through her selection of movies. After a bit of nit-picking, she finally decides on the movie Chasing Liberty. I look at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What. I heard it was a good movie, and I've never seen it before." She justifies.

"Okay. You're the guest." We walk over to the TV and I put in the CD. After injecting it in, I go sit next to Marinette. To be honest, I haven't really seen this movie either. Within halfway through the movie, I feel Marinette lying closer to me. She steadily gets closer until she was completely lying on me. I'm a bit confused, but I continue to watch the movie. When the movie ended, I turned it off and look at the clock. It reads 11:16. Time for bed. I give a very tired yawn, and wiggle my arm Mari's attached to, "Hey, Mari. It's time for bed." I whisper.

I don't get a reply from her, so I say it again. "Hey, Mari?" I ask. I look down at her and blush. She's already fallen asleep. Oh man.

What am I going to do? I don't want to wake her up! I slowly creep out from under her and lye her down. I look at her peacefully sleeping away. I try to think of what to do. I can't just leave her here on the couch, it's so uncomfortable. I look around. There must be something.

I pick her up from the couch. She's so light, and she looks so peaceful. I have to look away in despite of myself. The only logical place for me to put her is in my bed…but it's my bed, and I do want to sleep on the couch either. Well… maybe… I come up with a solution, but…

I look at my king sized bed, it looks big enough to fit three people, so I don't think space will be a problem. I walk her over to the bedside and lay her down gingerly. I look at her with tired eyes. 'What am I doing?' I ask myself. Thinking nothing more of it, I leave her there and go to the other side of the bed. My plan is that if I put her over on the opposite side of the bed of where I'm sleeping, maybe we can share the bed without disturbing each other. It's better than sleeping on the floor.

I face the opposite direction of Marinette. I want to pretend as much as possible that she wasn't there. It takes me a while to fall asleep, but fatigue won over me quickly, and I fell into a warm, sweet, endless dream.


	9. Chapter 10- Good Morning Marinette

Adrien's POV

The Next Morning

I groggily wake up from sleep. No, I don't want to get up. It's too early, let me sleep just a little longer. I'm holding an object in my arms, one of my pillows? Mmm, So warm. I squeeze a little tighter. 'Five more minutes.'

I try to go back to sleep. A few moments later, my pillow starts to move. "No, don't." I mumble. I nestle the pillow. It moves again. "Plagg, stop it." I murmur. 'It's too early for cheese.'

I open my eyes dazedly. I look down at the object that I was holding and I snap fully wake. "Oh no." I whisper, my cheeks go red. It's Marinette, and we were spooning. I looked at our positioning. My arms held tightly around her chest, and she's snuggling into me. We were at such close proximity. This is bad. I need to get out.

I slowly and carefully try to get out from under her. As I try to move, I hear Marinette. "No… Warm." She mumbles and snuggles back into my chest. I look at her. Her hair was messy from the night's sleep, but it made her look even more attractive. She slept with a smile in the corners of her mouth. She looks so peaceful in her sleep. Maybe a few minutes like this would be okay.

I then suddenly hear Plagg behind me, though he was supper quiet. I couldn't tell what he was saying, but I could tell he wasn't talking to me. I try to listen in on what he's saying, but the thing that really got my attention was when I heard a second voice. I know it's not Plagg, he doesn't have that light of a voice. I hear Plagg and the mysterious voice, who is that?

I move away from Mari to try and turn my head, but Marinette tries to protest against me and moves even closer to me. The voices stop.

I try for my third attempt, and after a little retaliation from Mari, I was able to get my arm out from her. After completely moving my body from her, she quickly turned around, and was now facing towards me, shriveled into a ball, cold. "Sorry Mari, I can't," I mumble softly to myself. A piece of hair falls on her face, and awkwardly, I move it and tuck it behind her ear. 'She's so cute.' I think to myself.

I look at her, then Marinette says something unexcitingly. "Adrien…" She moans. And stretches out her arms. I move her out of the way so she wouldn't grab me. Okay, that's it, I need to go. I get up from the bed and cover her in the blanket we were sharing. I face the direction that I heard the voices coming from, but all I can see is Plagg, fast asleep on his pillow. Quite strange.

'It must have been just me.' I think nothing more about it and head to the shower tiredly. I remember about yesterday, and how Marinette was singing while in the shower. I laugh to myself when I look back at Marinette. 'Man, I've got it bad for her.' I think and head into the shower.

Marinette's POV

I feel a sudden breeze on my back, and I get a chill. My blanket behind me suddenly disappeared, and I try to find it again. I feel around me, but it's not there. I open my eyes slowly and feel the sheets around me. Silk? I don't have silk sheets and covers. I look at the color, it's a nice shade of velvet. Again, not my bed. I start to panic. Where am I?

I lift my head. This room is foreign to me, but so familiar. Have I been here before. I start to remember last night. Oh yeah, I was at Adrien's last night. I look around me again. Wait, does that mean I'm in…? I panic. I am. I am in Adrien's bed. I blush. I then realize that the bathroom shower was on. He must be in there.

I quickly get out of bed and look at the time. Adrien's alarm read 8:20. I have two hours to get home. I look towards my bag in the middle of the room. Close by my bag, I see my cloths that I wore yesterday folded and dried on the coffee table. I quickly grab them and go to the opposite side of the room away from the bathroom. I quickly get dressed and go to my bag. I look through it to look for my extra hairbands.

While I look through it, I notice that Tikki isn't in there.

"Tikki?" I whisper shout.

"Over here." A squeak replies. I look over towards the voice, and see Tikki hiding behind a couch cushion.

"Tikki. You gave me a heart attack. I'm sorry I wasn't able to put you properly to sleep." I say.

"It's okay. This trip was worth my time in my own ways." She replies. I raise an eyebrow in question, but then we hear a sliding of the bathroom doors opening. Tikki quickly flies back into my bag. I rummage my bag and find my two extra hair rubber bands.

"Morning Mari." He says brightly. He takes the towel from around his neck and rubs it through his hair.

"M-morning." I say.

"Sleep well?" He asks.

"Yeah, actually, better than I normally do." I reply. "Thanks for letting me stay here last night."

He gives a chuckle, like I said a joke. "No problem. You can come any time."

"Yeah, I don't think so." I say.

We sit in silence for a bit. Adrien breaks the silence.

"I wanted to tell you this yesterday, but I forgot. You have a very nice singing voice." He says.

"S-singing voice?" I ask. When did I sing aloud, and especially in front of Adrien?

"Oh, uh, I heard you singing in the shower." He says. I blush, he heard me?

"You heard me?" I ask, getting flustered. "I thought those bathroom doors were soundproof." I answer honestly.

"Well, it's not. I just wanted to tell you that." He says.

"Th-thanks. I guess." I'm too flustered to say anything else. He heard me? I never sing. I just had a song stuck in my head, and the best way to get it out is if you sing it. I mentally face palm myself. I'm never going to sing again.

We fall into an uncomfortable silence. I realize that I haven't put my hair up, so I start to put my hair in pig tails, but my Adrien stops me.

"No, Mari. Don't put your hair up. I like it down." He says.

"And why should I take orders from you?" I ask him.

"Well, you're at my house, and you slept here last night, so the most you could do for me is do this simple favor." He replies.

"A favor? How is not putting my hair up a favor?" I ask him.

"Oh, uh, w-well." He shutters and scratches the back of his neck. "F-fine, if you absolutely don't want to do it, then you don't have to."

Hmmm, now I do want to keep my hair down. I like the attention that I'm getting from him. "Alright, fine. I'll do it. It is the least I can do." I emphasize on least. He gives me a warm smile, and I return it.

I look at the clock, it's almost 9 am. "Oh, I have to go."

"Why? It's so early." He looks at me with a somewhat hurt expression.

"We made a deal with my parents that I would make it home at ten remember?" I say.

"Oh, well, then let me get you breakfast." He says. I nod my head. Together Adrien and I go to the dinning room. He pulls out a seat out for me just like last time, and I graciously take it.

"Anything you want in particularly?" He asks.

"Um, maybe just a croissant and a cup of coffee?" I ask.

"Very well princess." He says with a bow. I look at him with a confused smile. Okay, that's a first. Before I could reply he walks into the kitchen to bring in my order. I give a small laugh. There he goes again, reminding me of Chat.

After a while, Adrien returns, but this time, he has brought his plate and my plate with him.

"Voila." He says and puts one of the plates in front of me.

"Well, thank you Miseur Adrien." I say. He bows and heads to his seat.

We enjoy breakfast together and I look at the time. 9:34?

"Oh no, I have to go! Thanks for everything Adrien. I'll see you on Tuesday at school!" I say and run up to Adrien's room to get my bag. Adrien runs close behind me.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. You're leaving." He asks.

"Yes. I told you before, I have to be home by ten A.M." I say and rush around his room trying to get all my stuff together. "And right now, it's…" I look at my phone again. "almost 9:40." I say. I make sure Tikki's in there. Once I saw her small red head I give her a nod then close my bag and swing it over my shoulder.

"Well, if you have to be home in 20 minutes, you're not going to be able to walk home in time." He says. "Wait hold on." He then runs out of the room. I don't have enough time to deal with what scheme he's up to. I wait for him for a while, but I leave right after him. I run out of the front door and start heading down the street.

The street still has about one inch of water on the road from last night's heavy rainfall.

I suddenly hear the beep of the horn behind me. I turn around and see Adrien's limo driving slowing down the road, it's tires creating a small wave of water as it cruses down the street.

'Oh Adrien. What's up with you?' I ask myself and roll my eyes. I wave at Adrien's driver and he gives me a smile. They park next to me and Adrien rolls down the window. "I told you to wait for me." He says.

I laugh, "Well. I had to get home fast, so I just had to leave." I justify.

"Hehe, well, get in." He says and opens the door from the inside.

I climb in and he drives me to my house.

I check my phone when we arrive, and it's about ten minutes to ten A.M. I open the door to get out.

"Thanks for the ride Adrien, and thanks for letting me stay over last night." I say.

"Hey, no problem. You can come over anytime. I'll see you on Tuesday!" He says and gives me a wink. I close the door and they leave me on the side walk, and I wave to him until he drives out of sight. "Oh, what a day." I say and walk into the bakery.


	10. Chapter 11- The Presentation

Marinette's POV

Next week, at school.

"How is your presentation?" I ask Alya as she gets out her papers for her History presentation.

"It's good." She replies. "All three of us have met over the weekend and worked on it."

"Heh, same, except only Adrien and I worked on it." I say and fold my arms.

"That's not very surprising. What was she doing? Did she give you all the work and ditch you?" She asks.

I scratch the back of my neck and look away guiltily. "Well, yes she gave us all the work, but we also didn't mention to her that we were meeting up to work on it." I say, "but even if we did invite her, she would have only been a distraction to us." I justify.

"Well, that wasn't nice. Yes, true she wouldn't have done anything, but you basically made her have a zero on the project." She says. I bow my head in guilt. She's right. Adrien and I basically gave up on her, and didn't give her a chance to get a score.

I know what I have to do, "I have to go do something." I say and get up from the desk. Alya watches me as I walk over to the teacher who's setting up for the upcoming project presentations.

She looks up from her work at me, "Oh, hello Marinette. What can I do for you?" She asks me.

"Um, well, it's about Chloé." I say.

"Oh yes. I got your email. I'll deal with her later." She says.

"Oh, n-no, Um, actually, Adrien and I haven't been fair to Chloé. We knew that she wouldn't help us when we worked, so we didn't invite her to come help us when we met over the weekend." I say.

She looks at me for a second, "Hmm. So are you saying that she won't be able to participate?" She asks.

"No. She'll participate, just not a whole lot. I just wanted to tell you so you know it's because of Adrien and I that she's not doing a whole lot." I say honestly.

"Alright, but please, next time have her at least be there as you work." She says.

"Yes ma'am." I say. I turn around, and Adrien is right behind me.

"So, after everything you said, you still want her to get points for the project?" He asks me, raising his eyebrow, giving me a smirk.

"Um, well, Alya and I have been talking, and she helped me realize that leaving Chloé out was wrong." I reply. He shrugs. "Alright."

I walk past him and Chloé walks up to me. "So, did you do the project?" She asks.

"Yup, and I need you to do something for it." I reply.

"Nah, I rather not. I'm rather tired and I don't feel like doing anything. Just say that I did my section." She says. My jaw drops to the floor. Uggh, she makes me so mad. Why am I doing this? I close my eyes and take a deep breath. 'Calm down Mari, Calm down.' I say to myself.

I open my eyes and she's playing with her nails. "No Chloé, you're going to participate, but lucky for you, it's easy. You're going to hold up some posters." I say.

"Hold up posters?" She asks. "Nu-uh, my arms will get tired." She complains.

"Oh well, or you'll get a zero." I say.

"A zero huh, well, I have a D, and if I get a zero, I won't pass the class for the semester." She mumbles to herself. "Fine, alright. I'll do it." She says and rolls her eyes.

I put on a fake smile. "Okay, come with me." I wave over to Adrien. When he gets to us, I explain the situation.

"Aright, so Adrien, Chloé and I have made the agreement that we'll present to the class and Chloé will hold all of our papers. So Adrien, will you get all of your posters that need to be presented?" I ask.

"Yes ma'am." He salutes, then head down to his desk. He pulls out his work and lays them on my table.

"Here, I'll let you guys do your thing." Alya gets up from her seat and heads over to Sabrina and Nino with her stuff, leaving me, Chloé, and Adrien to ourselves.

We go over our battle plan one more time with Chloé and the teacher interrupts the class.

"Class has started. Please head back to your seats, or sit with your group. Either is fine." She says. Chloé grabs our posters and sits next to me. She sits with a bored expression, not very interested in what's going on. Man, she makes me irritated. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. 'Everything is fine, everything is fine.' I repeat in my head. I open them and look at Alya, who noticed my stress. She gives me a smile, and a thumbs up. I return the smile, glad to know that she's got my back.

"Alright, I am going to draw a name of a group randomly. That group will come up to the front of the room and present their project. I will grade you off of your performance in front of the class as well as how precise your information is." She says and picks up a cup from her desk. She walks up to Nathanial.

"Please choose a name." She says. Nathanial does as he's told and reaches into the cup. He pulls out a white sheet of paper and hands it to the teacher. She opens the sheet.

"Alya, Sabrina, and Nino. Please come and present your project." She says.

Adrien's POV

After class

Nino comes up behind me and slaps my shoulders. He starts to praise me of how good our presentation was.

"Thanks Nino. Yours was pretty good as well!" I say.

"But yours was the best in the class! Did you travel to a University and meet a professor or something?" Nino asks.

"Well, the person who found most of the information was Marinette, so I don't know. I was impressed too." I say. It's break so everyone is out of class, but the majority of everyone was in the library because it was finally starting to get really cold outside. Everyone was wearing a jacket and long pants. It's been sweater weather for a while, but now it's time to get out the heavy jackets.

"Alya had a lot of information too. She did most of the information checks for us. She's so awesome." Nino says. I look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, just a question, but do you have a thing for Alya?" I ask him curiously. I already know the answer. He has it bad for her. I watch him stare at her with admiration all the time during break, and he includes her in our conversations often. I just wanted to ask him for clarification.

"M-me? Like Alya?" He gives a raspberry and waves his hand at me. "Y-you've got to be joking. Me? Like her? N-no way!" He stutters. He is such a bad liar. He laughs at me for a bit, then gives up. "It's that obvious?" He asks looking shyly at me.

"Well, I'm your friend, so I notice these things. You talk about her a lot, and you look at her a lot. So, at least to me, yes." I say.

"Aw man. Yeah, I like her, but there is no chance for me to be with her. Plus, I think I'm totally friend zoned." He says. I chuckle and put my hand on his shoulder. "Never stop trying." I say.

"I'll keep trying." He says, but then his attitude completely changes and the roles switch. "How about you and Mari?" He asks me giving a raised eyebrow like I did to him.

"What about me and Mari?" I ask him.

"Are you guys a thing?" He asks, moving closer to me. "I saw you in her room. You guys were alone, and you guys had a moment." He says. My mind goes back to the pizza party. I guess that was when I first realized that she was someone special to me.

"Oh yeah. That. Umm… we were talking about something important, and it got really intense." I lie.

"Oh yeah. It seemed intense, but there was much lack of conversation." He says. I awkwardly start rubbing my arms, a sudden chill entering into the room.

"Okay, yes, that might have been a moment, but I can assure you that we're not a thing because I like someone else." I say. Yeah, I have feelings for Mari, but my love for ladybug is much, much bigger.

"Who?" He asks.

"No one you know." I say. He gives me a curious look then shrugs. "Okay, I believe you." He says. The conversation dies and my eyes wander around the room for no reason. My eyes settle on Marinette, who's talking to Alya. I watch for a while and turn back to Nino who gives me another raised eyebrow. I blush and give him a shrug.

Nino rolls his eyes and gives a small laugh, "Yeah, okay." He says. The school bell rings and we head back to class. I am one of the last people in the class and I look at everyone. I'm a bit surprised to see Nathanial talking to Marinette while holding a piece of paper in his hand. I don't know what they're talking about, but I don't like it. I walk to my desk and pretend to act normal.

I listen into their conversation, "You did awesome during your presentation. I think you blew everyone away." Nathanial says.

"Oh, thanks Nathanial." Mari says.

"U-um, I made you something." He says and I hear the piece of paper in his hand. "I admired how you presented with no fear, so I drew a picture of you presenting. I hope you like it." He says shyly.

I hear the ruffling of paper and Marinette gasps.

"Oh Nathanial, it's awesome! I really do like it! Thank you!" She says.

"N-no problem." He says. Why do I feel so upset? They're friends and that's what he does. He makes pictures of people and gives his art to them, so why is this time any different. I look at my clenched hand. This is weird. Nathanial walks back to his seat and I can feel myself relax a bit. I turn my head and look at him, then at Mari.

"So, what did he give you?" I ask her.

"Oh, um, he gave me a photo of us presenting during class." She says and lifts up the page for me to see. The photo has me, Chloé, and Marinette standing in front of class during our presentation. I have to give it to Nathanial, he's really good with a pen. It had Marinette front and center, then me and Chloé in the background, though, Chloé and I weren't as detailed as Mari though. Again, I can sense my hands going tighter. I'm not upset that I'm in the background, but the thing that I'm upset about is the fact that he made Marinette so beautiful in the photo, meaning he's trying to get to her again.

"A-are you okay Adrien?" Mari asks.

"Oh, uh, yeah. I'm good. It's just, um…" I try to say but I get interrupted by Mari who was laughing silently to herself. "W-what?" I ask her.

"Oh, n-nothing." She says. I sit back to my seat and peek at her with curiosity. I look at my desk then look at Nathanial and although he wasn't looking at me, I gave him a glare. I reevaluate myself. I don't get it. I know I like Marinette, but to this extent? No, I love ladybug, and I will stay pure to my lady. I peek at Marinette again. What am I to do?


	11. Chapter 12- For Winter Break

Marinette's POV

Afternoon

"Pound it." I say and chat and I fist bump. Once again we saved Paris from Hawk Moths reign. I hear the groan from the person we just defeated. His name was Peter Piper with the power to control people and things with his flute, just like the fable.

I help him get up from the ground. "Are you alright sir?" I ask him

"Oh, yeah I'm alright. Sorry if I hurt anybody. I didn't mean to be angry." He says.

"Your name is Peter right?" I ask him.

"Peter? No, my name is Marc." He says. I just stare at him, confused. I assumed that his name is Peter since that was his akuma name. Well, I thought it made sense.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Well, Marc, care to tell me your story?" I ask him.

"Well, if it's alright, I wouldn't like to tell anyone. Just know it was stress and something that has to deal with music." He says.

"Oh okay," I say. That's a first. I shrug it off. "But if you need any help at all with anything, please don't hesitate to look for help from someone." I say.

"Yeah." He says and he's on his merry way. I look at him walk away in confusion. 'Alright.' I say to myself.

"Well, that was different." Chat says.

"Yeah." I say and look at Chat.

He turns to me and says "You look good today." I look down at my new suite. I guess my miraculous can tell that the temperature is shifting because my used to be thin, red and black poke-a-dot suite now feels and looked like a jacket, and I was given a pair of ladybug patterned ear warmers. I like the way it moves on my body, I'm able to have full range of motion just like my other suite.

"I can say the same about you too." I say. His suite looks similar to his old suite, just a bit bulkier. His mask covers his hears to keep them warm, and his black cat ears are a bit fluffier.

"Why, thank you m'lady. So, about that promise you made me-" He says, but I interrupt him.

"Chat, I told you multiple times before, not until you find out who I am." I say, kind of annoyed.

"I know, I know. Well, it's just that you haven't given me anything to work with, so I just have to ask you for one clue. Just one clue." He says his hands griped together in plea.

I roll my eyes. 'If I roll my eyes anymore, they're going to pop out of my head.' I say to myself. "Alright fine." I say. I think for a bit, what to say what to say. 'I got it.'

"I'm best friends with the person who adores me the most." I say and poke his nose. He goes cross eyed watching my finger, then glares at me.

"Of course you're befriended with your biggest fan. You're Ladybug. Your friends with everyone." He says. "Give me a better one." He says, giving me baby doll eyes. Oh, my biggest weakness, but with Chat, it's not the same. He looks cute, but not irresistible. In response to him, I give him a sweet, seductive glare, then scoop his chin with my pointer finger. His head moves with my hand, and grows a deep blush on his cheek. He looks like he's about to pass out.

"No, no, no, silly kitty. That's all you get. You said 'one'" I wave my finger in front of him and start to walk away. 'I've got him there.' I look back at him one more time. He's just staring at me, unmoving. I give him a wink and I shoot my yo-yo and fly away.

I laugh at myself. I have to do that more often. He looks so funny when I leave him like that. I giggle all the way home. I hear my earrings beep and I land on my roof. I transform back to Marinette and run downstairs.

"Well that was something." Tikki says. She must be talking about the man we just fought.

"Yeah, he was a bit, different, but he was also easy, so that was nice." I say, going to lay on the bed.

"Oh no, I'm not talking about that, though he was weird. I'm talking about you and Chat." Tikki says.

"What about it?" I ask.

"I think Chat might have gotten a wrong vibe from your actions." She says. "With your body language, you basically told him that you want him to figure you out."

"Well, it's not like I don't want him to. He will eventually, but I want to have some fun with him before that happens." I defend. I'm done with the conversation so I head downstairs to watch some television. After a few episodes, I hear my phone buzz from a text message. I check and its Adrien.

 **Hey, will you be going anywhere for winter break?**

 **~Adrien**

I think about his message. Am I going anywhere? I haven't planed anything. I go to the kitchen where mom is making dinner.

"Hey mom, just asking, but are we going to go do anything this winter break?" I ask her.

Mom looks at me, "No, unless you want to go somewhere. It'll have to be close by because we're not prepared to leave, and we don't have money for a long trip." She says.

"Oh, n-no, I was just asking." I say. "Thanks mom." I say and head back upstairs. I text Adrien that I'm free for the next few weeks. He doesn't message me right back so I set my phone down. I wonder why he's asking.

Tikki comes up to me, wanting to say something, but looks hesitant about it. "What is it Tikki?" I ask.

"Oh, eeh, it's nothing." She says and goes to her pillow to take a nap. She's been acting strange since the night at Adrien's house. Just a few days ago she asked if we were going to head back to Adrien's house anytime soon, like she really wanted to go.

I look at her curiously and then hear my phone buzz.

 **Do you want to hang out with me and Nino tomorrow? :P**

 **~Adrien**

Just me, Nino, and Adrien. That could get awkward quickly. I reply:

 **Sure! Can I bring Alya as well?**

 **~Marinette**

I quickly get a response.

 **Yeah. Of course! We'll meet you in your bakery during lunch. See you then! ;)**

 **~Adrien**

 **Okay. See you then!**

 **~Marinette**

I look at the texts that I sent. I wonder what we'll go do. I message to Alya about the get together we're going to have, and she says she can come, and that she'll come as soon as she could.

I run downstairs and tell mom that everyone was coming tomorrow for lunch. She got suddenly excited.

"Oh my, should I make some sandwiches then? Or, how about some pizza? Everyone liked it last time. Oh, where is your father? We have to tell him." She says, and stops what she's doing. She is about to run downstairs but I stop her.

"Uh, mom? It's fine, you don't have to do anything real special like last time. They're just going to stay for lunch, then were going out." I say. Mom stops in her tracks.

"Oh, alright dear. Let me tell your father though." She says and storms downstairs. I give an exhausted sigh. Oh boy, what did I do?

I head back upstairs and Tikki comes flying at me. "Can I come too?" She asks.

"O-of course. Why wouldn't you?" I ask her.

"Oh, I-I just wanted to make sure." She says and looks away. I give her a raised eyebrow.

"Why are you acting so strange?" I ask her.

"W-what do you mean?" She asks folding her arms.

"Ever since the night with Adrien, you've been acting very strangely." I say. She doesn't answer. "So, what happened that night?" I ask.

"Oh, n-nothing, it's just that…" She mumbles something, but I don't understand.

"I'm sorry?" I say.

"Iknowwhochtis" She mumbles again.

"Say again?"

"Ugh, I can't tell you, but I really want to tell you." She says. I give her a confused expression.

"But, I will tell you this. You and Adrien were totally snuggling that night." She says. It takes me a moment for me to understand what she said.

"W-what did you say?" I ask.

"You and Adrien were snuggling in bed. I'm surprised that you didn't ask why you were in Adrien's bed." She says, a giggle in her voice.

My head starts to spin. "W-we were…?" I half ask.

"Yup." She replies. "Um, Mari, you need to sit down. You look dizzy." I don't understand. I'm a light sleeper, I should have woken up. I go total freak-out mode. I start to pace about the room.

He wasn't there when I got up, he was in the shower. I remember that I was warm, really warm, then suddenly cold. I believed it was a blanket, but what if it was actually Adrien? I blush. Does that mean that he was awake and found us like that? He knew we were that close? Could he have-?

"Marinette!" Tikki interrupts my thought, "I know what you're thinking, but he was clean. He didn't do anything to you. If he did, I would have done something. He's a good kid. I most definitely approve." She says. I look at her with thankfulness. I look at my phone. We're going to meet up tomorrow. I'm going to have to talk to him about this.

"I know he's a good kid. Thank you Tikki. If anything did happen, I know that you would have done something." I say. She nods her head. "And, yeah, I'm totally going to bring you tomorrow. I need to talk to him about this, so I'll need some back up." I say. She nods her head again, then suddenly flies behind my bed. I hear the creak of my door and my mom pops up.

I grab my phone from my bed. "Are you talking to someone?" She asks.

"Oh, I-I was on the phone with Alya." I lie.

"Oh, alright. Just checking." She says, then heads back downstairs. I give a heavy sigh. That was a bit close. I look back at Tikki. I laugh a little. Oh, what a day tomorrow.

Adrien's POV

"You're inviting Marinette and Alya?" Nino asks me.

"Well, I invited Mari, then she invited Alya." I say.

"Oh okay. That's good." He says, a bit stressed.

"Hey, I have an idea. You should ask her out tomorrow." I say.

"Who? Alya? Yeah, we saw how last time went." He says. He's referring to the time at the zoo when he tried to ask Mari out, the same day he first started having feelings for Alya.

"Well, this time it'll be different. I'll be there in the flesh, and we'll have Mari there too." I say. I hear a sigh from his side of the phone. There was a pause in the conversation.

"F-fine. I will, but you need to promise me something." He says.

"Yeah dude. Anything." He says.

"You have to ask Mari out too." He says. My eyes go wide. Oh man.

"Oh, yeah. Mari. Y-yeah. Sure. I'll do it. As long as you do." I say.

"It's a deal. I'll see you tomorrow at Marinette's place." He says.

"See you then." I say then hang up. I put my phone down. I lie down on my bed and put my arm over my eyes. I think about Ladybug and her riddle. 'I'm best friends with the person who adores me the most.'? She couldn't have given me anything harder to understand. Friends with her biggest fan? The same thing has been going through my mind endlessly. Do I know her biggest fan? The only people I know that are big fans are myself, Nino, Alya, and Chloé, but there are a lot of people in France that love her. I can mark Chloé off the list because of past instances. It's obvious she hates her. So who can she be.

I also suddenly wish that I didn't invite Mari to come along. I should be trying more on getting a date with Ladybug, not Marinette. Not that that's going to be awful. Not at all, in fact, I really want to, it's just that I have a goal. Alright, I've decided. I'll go on one date. One, and if it goes well, and if I just can't figure out who Ladybug is, I'll be with Marinette.


	12. Chapter 13- The Start Of The Evening

Adrien's POV

Lunch Time

"Are you ready?" I ask Nino.

Nino gives a heavy sigh and adjusts his jacket around his neck like it's choking him, "I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, but yeah, I'm ready." He says. We turn the street corner and Marinette's family bakery comes into view. 'Yeah, me too.' I say to myself.

I've been planning about how this whole evening will play out. We'll start with lunch at the bakery, then we'll walk down to the Eifel Tower. There's a Christmas market going on near there, so we'll go and do some Christmas shopping to get into the holiday spirit. After that, we'll go out and see a movie that we'll decide when we get there. Then I will ask Mari out (Only for Nino).

I can feel my hands sweating through my gloves in anticipation. I haven't been this nervous like this for a while. Why am I scared? I'm Paris's mighty hero, Chat noir. Asking a girl out shouldn't be so hard.

Nino and I make it to the front door, we look at each other. I nod my head to him, giving him an unspoken 'Let's do this.'. He nods his head in return and I turn the handle. A small ding from the welcome bell rings as I open the door.

"Hey guys!" I hear Alya shout as we enter. She's sitting at one of the tables by herself. I smile and nod my head in greeting.

"Sup Alya!" Nino says casually. I look around the small bakery in search for Marinette.

"Hey, where's Mari?" I ask Alya.

"Oh, she went upstairs just now to go get her wallet and bag." Alya says. I nod my head in understanding. I start to walk towards the upstairs, but Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng stop me.

"Oh, you boys are already here?" Mr. Dupain-Cheng says.

"Uh, y-yes sir. We just got here actually." I say a bit nervously.

"Oh good. We're just about to have lunch." Mrs. Dupain-Cheng says. I walk back to Nino and Alya who are talking about what we're going to do this evening.

"What movie are we going to watch tonight?" Alya asks.

"We'll decide tonight when we get there." Nino says.

"What's this about a movie?" Mrs. Dupain-Cheng asks behind me. I tell her about tonight's plans. When I finish, she gets excited.

"Oh that sounds like a ton of fun. Just be sure that Mari gets home before midnight alright?" She asks me.

"Yes ma'am." I say. With a smile on her face she disappears through a bakery doorway. I turn back to Nino and Alya. A few minutes pass by, and Marinette still hasn't come downstairs yet. I start to get worried.

"Do you guys think Mari is okay?" I ask.

"Yeah, it has been a while, I'll go check on her." Alya says and gets up from her seat. I follow her, but just as I am about to go on the stairs, Mr. Dupain-Cheng opens the bakery door Mrs. Dupain-Cheng went through.

"Hey boys, I could use your help." He says. I look at Alya who's already halfway up the stairs. She gives me a sorry grin and heads upstairs. I give an internal sigh.

"What do you need?" I ask him, Nino quickly coming to my side.

"I need your help bringing the food out, that's all." He says. We follow Mr. Dupain through the door he just came out of. A wave of delicious aromas swells into my nose. I see sandwiches, pizza, chicken, frosted charismas cookies and other small treats. My mouth starts to drool, and my stomach rumbles angrily at me because of the lack of breakfast this morning. Yeah, I know I should have eaten, but I knew I would be eating unhealthily today, so I decided not to eat anything.

Nino and I grab a few plates of food and we go out to the main area where the girls were waiting. I smile at Marinette in greeting, but she looks away quickly. My smile fades. Did I do something wrong?

I put the food down at the table that Mr. Dupain-Cheng pointed out at Nino and I and we head back to get the rest. After all the food was out, Mr. Dupain-Chang came out and announced lunch.

"Alright everyone, the food is set, time to eat." He says. Nino was the first to get a plate and gets a little bit of everything. Ayla is second in line, and I'm last. Mari doesn't get up from her seat.

After serving myself I put my food down at a nearby table and walk up behind Marinette. I tap her on the shoulder and she shivers. I quickly take my hand away. "A-are you going to eat anything?" I ask her.

"Uh, n-no. Thanks, but I'm fine. Really." She says, barely looking at me. I'm about to ask her about what's wrong, but Alya and Nino come and sit down. I don't say anything else and sit at the other end at the table. Throughout the meal, Marinette completely ignores me. I tried to talk to her a few times, and each time, she says a very simple answer or just doesn't answer. I finally give up and look down. Alya and Nino seem to be hitting it off though, so that made me happy.

When we finished our meal, we put on our heavy weather clothing back on so we're ready to go to the Christmas Market. We leave the shop and head down. At this time, Nino and Alya are in their own world, so I walk with Marinette. We don't talk to each other for a while, but I finally have the guts to speak.

"So, Mari. What's up?" I ask.

"N-nothing." She stutters without looking at me. There was silence between us, a silence that chokes me from saying anything else. I take a deep breath and ask the forbidden question.

"Why are you mad at me?" I half whisper. She finally looks at me.

"I-I'm not mad." She says cautiously, "It's just that, something has been going through my mind."

I look at her with confusion. "What?" I ask.

"It's about the other night, when I was over." She says. I look at her with confusion.

"What about the other night?" I ask.

"W-why was I in your bed last night?" She asks. I finally catch onto the situation.

"Oh, yeah. That." I put my hand on the back of my neck in nervous habit. "I was tired, and you fell asleep during the movie. In my tired state, my mind best thought that it would be okay to put you there." I say.

"And you slept in it too?" She asks. I don't answer. I just look down in guilt. She knows. I thought that she wouldn't find out about it. I look at her, and she's looking on the ground unfocused. I can't find an excuse, so I keep my mouth shut.

"And how about the morning?" She asks. Again, I keep my mouth shut.

"Listen, I know what happened that morning. It was a mistake, but, it's just…" She doesn't finish her sentence.

"I-I'm sorry. I was stupid. I didn't mean for it to end up like that. I promise." I say, then realize something else, and with a panic in my voice I say, "A-and if you think that I d-did something to you while you slept, I-I promise that I didn't." I say, the feeling of warmth growing on my cheeks. I hear a small chuckle coming from her.

"I know." She says and smiles at me. I relax. I'm so glad that we had this conversation. She's so understanding, and she doesn't blow up easy. We don't talk the rest of the way there, but the tension between us finally let up.

When we get to the market, we start with a drink shop and got a few cups of hot apple cider. We go to every stand and window shop. There were lights, wind chimes, nut crackers, candles, food, and Christmas decorations. When we all finished, Nino thought of the idea that we would each go off and buy a gift in secret, then, when we get to the cinema, we will write our names on a napkin, then put them in someone's snow hat. We would draw the name, and to whoever we chose, we would give them their gift at the end of the night. We separated for a bit to find our gift.

I knew exactly what to get. I saw a bunch of snow globs earlier and I thought they looked awesome. I head straight for the shop. After looking through all the festive holiday themed snow globs and chose the best one they had, a snow globe of Father Noël with presents and children all around him, although, the one next to it with Chat Noir and Ladybug in Christmas outfits didn't look bad either.

After purchasing my gift, I go to a nearby wrapping station where they boxed and wrapped my present in red and green striped wrapping paper. With my present in hand, I head to a giant Christmas tree that was designated as our meeting point. I was the first to arrive, but soon after me, Nino comes along.

"So, how's it going with Alya so far?" I ask him.

"It's going awesome dude. I think that I can do it. I'll ask her after the movies." He says confidently.

"No way man, that's when I'm going to ask Mari." I say. Nino shakes his head.

"Are you sure you can? Earlier it looked like she had nothing to do with you." He says sympathetically.

I shrug, "Yeah, it was weird, but we talked about it."

"Why was she mad at you? What did you do?" He asks.

"Oh, she wasn't mad. We just needed to talk about something that happened before." I say.

"Care to share?" He asks.

"Nah, it was nothing." I lie.

"Alright." He says. The girls took a while and Nino and I got a chill, so we bought some hot chocolate and some cookies for the girls when they get back.

By the time the girls got back, we finished our hot chocolate and were tempted to eat the cookies.

"Alright, so where are we going now?" Alya asks Nino. Nino hands Alya her cookie and replies, "We're going to the movies."

"Ooh, what are we going to watch?" Marinette asks.

"We'll decide when we get there." I say and giver her her delicious treat. She nods her head in thanks and puts it into her bag.

"Well, let's get going then." Alya says and loops her arm through Nino's. He kind of stares at it unexpectedly, like he doesn't know what to do next. Alya starts to pull Nino onward, and Nino half walking and half being dragged walk to the movie theater. I cover my mouth with the back of my wrist to keep me from laughing.

I see Marinette starting to walk away, following Nino and Alya. 'Where do you think you're going?'

I rush up to her and lead out my arm for an escort. "Care to come with me m'lady?" I ask. She stops in her tracks and looks at me. She gives me a modest smile and loops her arm through mine. "Of course my good sir." She says.

The memory of my first escort with her, echoes in my mind as we head off to the movies, arm in arm.


	13. Chapter 14- The Movie With Skates

Marinette's POV

We've been walking around outside for a while. Adrien and I have been arm in arm, making a bit of small talk, but not talking about a subject in specific like earlier. I'm so glad that the conversation went over so well. I was really worried that everything would go bad, and that we wouldn't be friends anymore. I felt like instead of things spiraling downward (like I thought it would) I think the opposite happened. I felt even closer, and more attracted to him, which I thought was impossible. 'Darn you Adrien! Making me love you even more! Now, I won't ever stop thinking about you.' I blush internally with my new realization.

Alya and Nino are just a bit up ahead of us, talking about something extremely funny. I check the time on my phone and it read 18:14. We've been walking around for a good 20 minutes or so, which is odd because the cinema was just a few minutes away from the Eifel Tower. I whisper to Adrien.

"Where are we going?" I ask him hushly.

"I'm pretty sure we were headed to the movies." He cooed sarcasticly.

"Shouldn't we have gotten there a while ago?" I ask him and show him my phone. He doesn't reply, but instead starts to laugh. I give him a confused look.

"I think I know what's up." He says. He then pulls me quickly until we stood right next Nino and Alya. We walk beside them for a while, but as I looked at them, I could see that they didn't notice that we were there. Ah! So that's it. I guess they were so deep into what each other and what they were saying, that they forgot that they weren't the only people in the world, and didn't even know that timed passed. I giggled internally.

Adrien gives a fake cough, but they don't react. I giggle quietly to myself again. Adrien tries again, louder this time, and I swear Nino jumped at least five feet, and Alya looked at us.

"Bejeebies man. You scared me." He says.

"Bejeebies?" Adrien asks.

"Yeah." He says defensively.

Ignoring what 'crude' word came out of his mouth I ask Nino, "Weren't we supposed to be going to the movies?"

"Yeah, that's where we're going." He says, then starts to look around. His eyes start to bulge when he realizes that we weren't even close to the movies. He just stares off into space as a small blush forms on his face at the fact that he had been leading us to nowhere. Alya realizes it too, and muffles her laugh with her hand.

"Yeah." Alya says after she was able to calm down a bit. Alya and Nino both looked at us embarrassed. They were supposedly leading us to the movies, since they were in the front, but then again, Adrien and I weren't necessarily paying attention either.

"Ehh, don't worry man. Sorry that I didn't mention it earlier. I should have noticed we were going in the wrong way." Adrien says letting go of me and swings one of his arms over Nino's shoulders. He had a laugh in his voice. We start to walk as a group to the direction to the movies, not arm in arm. Though, I wish we still were. I just think that maybe me and Adrien walking alone, wouldn't be as bad as missing a movie. It was fun, and I wish that it lasted longer.

Luckily we weren't too far away from the movies and we were there in no time. When we entered into the movies, I hadn't realized how cold I was until I felt the warmth from inside. I shiver as goose bumps incarcerate my body. As I rubbed my arms up and down my arms to speed up the warming process, we head over to the movie list to decide on a movie.

The movie list was lame. Most of the good movies will be coming out on Christmas, so we were stuck with probably boring drama's. My favorite movies I like to watch are the action films made in America. To be honest, they have some very good actors. We decided on a movie that seemed okay. I've seen the trailer for it before I think, and it seemed alright. Once we decided on the movie we decided on the tickets. The next showing of the movie will be in ten minutes, luckily (I hate waiting for movies). We decided to sit in the very center of the theater (the best seats) and, once we had the tickets, Nino had an idea.

"How about, instead of drawing napkins, we write our name on a ticket, so then when we choose them, we would both have to sit next to them, and give them the gift we bought?" He says. It was a good idea, so we all agreed. No one had a pen so we got one from the customer service table. Once everyone chose a ticket and wrote their name on it, Adrien took off his hat so we could use it to pull out names. Nino held the hat and I was the first one who chose.

My hand went into the hat and I pulled out a ticket. I closed my eyes to draw it out. Once I had a good hold on it, I put it in front of my face and slowly opened my eyes. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw it was Adrien's. I give a sigh and showed it to everyone. I look at Adrien, and he gives me a wink. I can feel my face getting hot so I quickly look away. Alya was next to choose, and just like me, she closed her eyes.

She chose her ticket and opened her eyes. "Marinette!" She says. My blood pressure drops when I heard her, glad to know that I would be sitting with her, and not alone. I know I watched a movie with Adrien before, but this time will be different because now I have the cuddling scene in my mind. We give each other a high five. I looked at Adrien and he looked a bit irritated.

Adrien was next. With a non-enthusiastic, lazy movement, he moved his hand into the hat. He pulls out his ticket and reads aloud, "Nino." He says, a bit pleased.

"And that leaves me with Alya. So the order will be Adrien, Mari, Alya, then me." He says. Seemingly happy, Alya grabs my arm and we go to the food counter, with the boys close behind. We bought some popcorn and some soda cups, then we went to the condiments area where we got our soda and Alya added some extra butter to her popcorn. After we were all set, we went to the movie room.

The commercials were already rolling when we entered into the room, so it was relatively dark. The theater wasn't very packed either. There were just a few couples scattered here and there, but that was it. Adrien went first and it only took him a bit to find our roe. He hastily made it to his seat and the rest of us quickly followed him. After making ourselves comfortable, the lights dimmed even more and the movie began.

Adrien's POV

The movie was alright, I guess. The ending was horrible though. The guy and the girl didn't even get together in the end. Their relationship just down spiraled down to nothing, and they left a cliff hanger for a second movie (which I don't want to see).

Midway through the movie though, I had to use the restroom, and when I got up, I saw Nino and Alya holding hands, leaning into each other. Mission Accomplished.

Now it was my turn. After getting back into my seat, I peaked at Mari, who was deeply into the movie. She looked cute, and I have to say to myself that I definitely feel something for her now. I don't know, but our conversation made me fall for her a little more. I don't want to be 'just friends' anymore. I get a flash of Ladybug in my mind, but I push it aside. She won't come with me now, so I'll make it up with Marinette. At least once.

After the movie ended we all got up and went to the lobby. Nino and Alya said they had to leave. So now it was just me and Marinette. 'Okay, now is better than never. You can do this' I say to myself, giving myself a boost of confidence.

"So, how did you like the movie?" I ask her.

"It was alright, the ending could have been better." She says.

"Yeah. I hate the ending too. The cliff hanger was too conspicuous of what's to come next. I don't think I'll watch the next one." I say.

"Yeah, me neither." She replies. She gets out her phone to check the time.

"It's 9:35, we have plenty of time to go do something else." She says. I think for a while. Where should we go? Ah ha.

"I know exactly where to go." I say. I grab her hand and lead her outside. I guide her down a few streets and quickly make it to our destination. Marinette's eyes gleam with excitement when she realizes where we are.

"Ice skating?" She asks excitedly.

"Yeah. I heard that it was here, but I wasn't sure I was going to go." I say.

"I haven't gone ice skating since I was little." She says. I smile at her. I notice we're still holding hands and I squeeze them slightly. She looks down at them and blushes. I chuckle and pull her along to go get the skates. We get our sizes and put them on.  
I head up first. After breaking my ankles trying to get to the skating gate, I finally make it to the smooth, white surface. WHAM!

The next thing I knew I was on the ice and my arm hurt. I let out a groan and Marinette starts to laugh. I glare at her.

"First time?" She asks between laughs.

I look away from her, "yeah." I grumble. My dignity now gone, I had to blush.

"Alright, one second." She says and starts to help me up. I accept her hand and I hold onto the skating barrier for dear life. After making sure I was fine, she stood up perfectly fine. "Hey, I know I would be leaving you, but can I skate around for a bit real fast?" She asks.

"Yeah, of course. It's not that I'll be going anywhere." To insure my point, my leg gives up on me and I almost fall again.

"A-Alright." She giggles. Then she was gone. I watched her go around. She looked like a professional, so graceful. She even went backwards. BACKWARDS!

After making her full loop, she skids to a stop. I give her a raised eyebrow, and she innocently shrugs, like it was nothing. I release the wall to fold my arms, but I fall down again. I slowly make it back to my feet, my butt hurting.

"Alright, come here." She says, giving me her arm. I hesitantly take it as I separate from my wall. She teaches me the technique, how to hold my feet and bend my knees. I do what I'm told, and slowly I start to get the hang of it. Soon enough, we were, somewhat slowly, skating together. I did not let go of her hand however.

"You're getting good at this." She says to me. I look at her and I give her my biggest smile. We don't pay attention to where we're going, and a kid comes and skates right in front of us. Panicked, my Chat Noir reflexes activated and I lifted Marinette into my arms and swerved, barely missing the kid. Noticing the kid was safe I relaxed. Bad idea. The balance on my feet was uneven and I fall. I open my eyes and Mari was just underneath me. My hands by her head.

Oh crap. She was looking at me, blushing deeply at the position we were in. The white ice around us brought out her blue bell eyes, making them more magnificent to look at. "Uhh." I manage to say. Suddenly I hear Mari laughing. I blush and laugh along with her. I quickly get up from her and she stands me up.

"I think that's enough ice skating for one night." She says and I nod my head in agreement. We quickly make it back to the main entrance and take our skates off.

"I'm surprised you've never gone ice skating before." Mari says.

"And I'm surprised that you can skate so well. How old where you when you last went?" I ask.

"Oh, I was, like, six, maybe seven." She says, and scratches her cheek. I look at her surprised.

"And you were that good? Wow, you're awesome." I say, surprised at myself for what I just said.

She giggles as a response and I blush. She takes out her phone again. "Well, I should be heading back. It's 11:30."

"11:30?"

"Yeah. Time went by fast." She puts her phone back into her bag.

"Let me walk you home then." I say and extend my arm again. She gladly takes it and we walk silently. The walk went by way too fast. Soon enough we were at her front steps.

She gets out her key to open the front door and unlocks it. She turns around to me before she goes inside.

"Thanks for the fun night." She says. I just look at her.

"Yeah, no problem." I say. That was it? That's all I can muster. After waiting in awkward silence, she says, "Alright. Goodnight. I'll see you later." Then turns around. I stare at her like a stupid idiot that I am. She's opening the door and starts to go inside.

'Come on Adrien. You have to do it NOW!' In a dash, I was already up the steps, and I grab her arm before she could close the door.

"Wait. C-can we go out again?" She just stairs at me, surprised and shocked.

"W-what do you mean?" She asks.

"I-I liked tonight, and I was w-wondering if we could go and d-do it again sometime." I stutter. Gosh, I'm so lame.

"Yeah." She says. I look up at her. She wasn't necessarily looking at me, but she was blushing and was holding her arm. She looked so uncomfortable, but also adorable. I jump with joy on the inside, and give off a huge smile. I don't waste any time. I quickly grab her hand and kiss it. Her hand was soft and gentle. I look up at her, the same expression still on her face. I give her a wink, and I'm out of there. I wave at her, "I'll text you later!" I leave her staring at me as I disappear into the night.


	14. Chapter 15- The First Morning Snow

Marinette's POV

I stand there like an idiot for at least five minutes staring after him. Am I dreaming? I have to be dreaming.

"Ooooh." I hear from my bag, snapping me right back to reality. I look down at my little red friend sitting comfortably in my bag. I completely forgot she was there.

"I knew it!" Tikki said.

"Knew what?" I ask her.

"That he was into you." She says and giggles. I blush and head inside. He caught me completely by surprise. Never in my wildest dreams (well, maybe my wildest) did I ever imagine him actually asking me on a date. The events of tonight settled in and anxiety starts to form into my soul. I quickly run upstairs, ignoring my parents in the kitchen who were saying they were glad I was home. I crashed onto my soft pink bed and covered my mouth with a pillow and screamed. Loud. My face felt like fire as blood rushes to my cheeks and tears filled my eyes. After calming myself down with steady breaths, I slowly got up still gripping tightly to my pillow.

Tikki was sitting on a chair watching me putting on a show, and I give her the biggest smile. She smiles back and zips up to me and gives me a big hug.

"I'm so happy for you Marinette!" She says. I pat her.

"Thanks. I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight though." I say honestly.

"Don't worry. There isn't any school tomorrow, so you can sleep in if you want." She says, going to my desk. She picks up a tissue and gives it to me. I gladly take it and wipe my wet cheeks. I've never been so happy, ever.

I look near my bed where my bag was. I grab it off the floor and look through it to look for my phone. As I look through it, I find my gift that I forgot to give Adrien. I take it out.

"Shoot. I forgot." I say. It was a little German smoker boy in a cute skiing outfit. You separate the top and bottom pieces, then put a little cone shaped incense tablet on the middle slat on the bottom piece, then light it of fire. When you put the top part on it, it looks like it's smoking. I thought it was cute, and I don't think anyone can say otherwise.

"Is that Adrien's gift?" Tikki asks.

"Yeah, it is. I was going to give it to him at the movie theater, but he took me ice skating and I forgot." I turn the little trinket in my fingers.

"I'll give it to him when I see him next time." I say. Suddenly a wave of exhaustion hits me like a truck. Watching a two-hour movie then two hours of skating took a lot out of me. Despite what I said earlier, I yawn and my eyes get heavy.

"Hehe, long day?" She asks.

"Yeah." I say and head into the bathroom. I quickly get ready for bed and collapse on my bed.

"Huh, good night, I guess." She says.

"Good night." I reply. Tikki turns off the lights for me and I lie in bed. I close my eyes, but I don't sleep. I twist around, very hot and uncomfortable. I just can't sleep, even though my body desperately wants it. I sit up and look at the alarm clock. It's been two hours since I've gone to sleep. I look at Tikki and she's peacefully asleep on her designated pillow. The room is quite stuffy, so I go to the balcony to get some cool air in the room.

I look out of the window and it looks like there's a cool breeze. Knowing it's going to be a bit more than chilly, I grab a hoodie and walk outside. The crisp, cool air sends chills down my arms and spine. I take a deep breath.

I look at the Paris streets below me. Another peaceful night. It still racks my head that, even though Hawk Moth had us completely busy before, now it seems relatively quiet. He must be planning something, but what, I have no idea. Mid-thought, I get a very weird feeling. Something moves to my right. I quickly look, but nothing's there. 'Probably a bird.' I look around again, having the feeling I'm being watched. 'I don't like this' I say to myself and head back inside.

The room is cooler now, so I think I can finally sleep. I take off my sweatshirt, and pull up my covers. I look back out of the porch window. There was a dark figure outside, it's green eyes glowing profoundly right at me. 'Chat?' I look away when I sit up, but when I looked again, the figure was gone.

Next Morning

My eyes slowly creep open. The first thing my mind things to look at is the porch. Good, no mystery person. Something else was there instead, and it filled my heart with excitement. I quickly grab my jacket and some boots and put them on. I burst through the porch door and get enveloped in a winter wonderland. Snow completely covered every inch of Paris's streets, leaving a beautiful, perfect, white blanket.

I hear Tikki waking up behind me.

"Tikki! Come here! It's beautiful!" I wave her over.

"Did it snow?" She asks.

"Yeah, and it looks amazing!" I say. Tikki groggily flies her way up to me and shares the view. We look out for a while, then I hear the buzzing of my phone. In surprise, I stumble over myself to my nightstand. I pick up my phone, one unread message.

'Alright. You can do this.' I say to myself. I open it, it's from Alya. I sigh in disappointment, but also relief.

 **IT'S SNOWING!**

 **~Alya**

 **Yeah, it is. It looks so pretty. Do you think it will last?**

 **~Mari**

 **I hope so. Hey, do you want to hang out later? Like at the park? I have something very important to tell you!**

 **~Alya**

 **Sure, just tell me when and where and I'll meet you.**

 **~Mari**

 **How about we meet at the park in an hour?**

 **~Alya**

In an hour? Isn't that too early? I look at the alarm clock, 10:53? I slept in for quite a while.

 **Yeah, see you then!**

 **~Mari**

I head downstairs for breakfast (or would it be lunch?). I thought that mom and Dad would be down in the bakery, but they were in the kitchen. I tell them about my plans for the afternoon, with little question about last night. After a quick breakfast, I go back upstairs and get dressed for the cold weather. I tell Tikki to come with me and we head out.

I want to walk around town by myself for a while in this white paradise though, instead of viewing the scenery, I was more focused on my phone. I'm so nervous that Adrien said he would text me later so whenever I thought my phone buzz, I would quickly and rapidly take my phone out to find absolutely nothing. Ugh, I'm too paranoid. And what was with Chat last night? I'm pretty sure it was him last night, but that wasn't like him. Peeping at me? I must have been dreaming.

Quickly, I found myself at the park. I look around for Alya, but she wasn't here yet. I find one of the benches and wipe the snow off. The powdery snow mushed in my hands like mashed potatoes. It snowed a lot last night, but the ground was still too warm for snow, making it extremely sticky. Perfect for making a snowman.

Instead of sitting down, I do exactly that. I start with a small snowball, then lay it on the ground and start to roll it around. Soon enough, a good large snowman base was made. Pleased with myself, I started to work on the second section. At this point, I could barely feel my fingers from the cold.

I finally finish the second section and I pick it up. It's pretty heavy, so I have to roll it across the lot. When I make it, the midsection was bigger than the bottom, so I have to critique its size. After wiping some snow off the mid piece, I heave it to make it the mid-peice. I'm about to start the head, but I get a tap on my shoulder.

"Don't worry, I got this." Alya says, holding a face-sized snowball and some sticks. She places her piece to the top, and puts the twigs on the sides for arms.

"He looks cute." I say. "Okay, so what's up? You said you had something important to tell me."

She gets super excited, and shrieks. "Nino asked me out last night!" She says, grabbing my hand. Honestly, I saw this coming a mile away, but I act excited anyway.

"Really? Oh, that's so exiting! How?"

"After we left, he took me to the mall. We got some coffee, and he asked me out. He's going to pick me up later tonight." She says, super excited, red engulfing her mocha colored face. I just smiled at her.

"I'm pretty sure that Adrien asked me out too." I say shyly.

"No. Flippin. Way. He did?"

"Yeah. He took me ice skating, then when he dropped me off at my house, he asked if we should go out again sometime."

"Oooh, That's so romantic. Taking you ice skating? We haven't done that in forever!"

"Yeah, it's been a while. You should have seen him. Let's just say that he has never gone ice skating before. I had to teach him." I giggle at remembering how many times he fell down.

"That must have been funny to see."

"It was, but it was a ton of fun." My pocket buzzes, for real this time. I quickly grab it out. "It's from Adrien."

"Well, good thing I'm here." Alya says. We go and sit at the bench I brushed off earlier.

 **Hey, about earlier, do you think we can hang out tonight?**

 **~Adrien**

"Tonight? Ooh. That's when we're going out too!" She says, she gasps. "Do you think that they're doing it on purpose?"

"Doing what on purpose?"

"Well, think about it. On the Hangout we had yesterday, they both asked us out, and now, both of us are going to be going out, tonight?"  
"Yeah, what about it?"

"What if they're putting each other up to this, like if I do it, then you have to, too."

"I don't think that's it, though I don't think you're wrong about the idea of it."

"Yeah, well, I'll ask him tonight. You should to." She says and points at my phone at Adrien's message that I haven't replied to. I nod my head and reply that I'll be waiting for him at the bakery.

I feel a tickle on my nose, and look up from my phone. It started to snow again, and a strong chilling breeze blew in.

"Brr. It's getting cold, want to go inside to warm up?" Alya asks.

"Yeah." I say, getting a bit worried. The snowing intensified quickly and the sky went from fluffy white to dark gray. We quickly made it under cover right before a massive blizzard comes in. I couldn't see the park at all because the snowfall was so thick.

The wind roared and the snow rumbled, as if it were laughing at us. The rumbling grew louder, and the inches of snow grew higher. If this kept going, we would be completely blocked in. The louder the rumbling got, the more it sounded like laughter, in fact, I'm pretty sure that it is laughter.

"Do you think someone got akumatized?" I ask Alya.

"I think so. Let's check the news." She says and gets out her phone. It was the main headline. FROSTY TAKING OVER THE CITY. Turns out the whole city was getting taken over with snow. Gosh, I really don't want to go out in the cold during this blizzard, but I'm ladybug. I have to.

"Hey, Alya. I'm going to go and call my mom okay." I say

"Go for it. I'll be right here. Not like I'm going anywhere." She says. I wave at her and head to a nearby, unoccupied bathroom.

"Tikki, spots on!"


	15. Chapter 16- Fighting Elsa

Marinette POV

The first place I thought to check was the stairs to the roof. I checked the door, it was unlocked, but it was heavily blocked by snow. I grunt in frustration. I check the back door next, it was also unlocked, but again, snow completely blocked the entryway. The windows. I run to the closest window. The only thing I saw was a dark white. Frost is meaning to trying to keep us all inside. I start to dig myself a way through, not caring if some snow got on the carpet floor. I bet my lucky charm could help, but it's too early in the game. I'll need it later.

I keep digging, luckily, my suit felt what I was doing so my fingers became stronger, and the fabric around my hand became what felt like thick snow gloves. I keep digging, first straight, then upward. At first it was easy to claw my way through because it was just powder, but the more I dug, the more the snow packed together and felt like hard ice.

My fingers where soar and hurt when I finally reached the top. I squeezed myself through the small hole I made and lay down exhausted. I held my wrist and stretched out my fingers. They weren't cold, so that was good, but I couldn't feel them. I stand up and look around. Only doors and windows were completely covered by a thick wall of ice and snow. The mound I was standing on was at least ten feet high and was completely firm. If it weren't for my suit, I probably could not have been able to dent this ice block.

The streets were luckily, completely clear of pedestrians. That means that they are all inside, good. It was still snowing hard, but it was much clearer, but the wind was blowing just as hard. My suit was in its winter form, so I was warm. I get off of my block of ice and seize the streets. I cover my face so I can block oncoming snow. 'Where are you?'

Right then my question was answered when a large icicle sliced across my face, cutting my cheek. In complete shock for my luck that it didn't shoot through my face, I turn around.

"Oh, I missed." I sinister feminine voice says in a shadow of snow. The woman appears on a hovering snow cloud. Her dress was beautiful. She was wearing a very delicate, white and blue, ice dress. She was a basic splitting image of Elsa from the Disney movie, except her skin had a blue and purplish hew to it, looking like she had frost bite, and looked anything but kind. There was another icicle in her hand. I grab my yo-yo in preparation. She shoots the laser pointed ice spear at me, with a very high speed, and I barely move out of the way. I fling my yo-yo at her, but she merely just hits it aside. My eye's go wide in shock, and I move again to dodge another attack, this time it was a snowball.

Oh, she's going to be tough. 'Okay, so I'm not going to get her like that. Fine, where is her akuma?' I dance around her, observing her while dodging attacks. There's nothing. She has nothing akuma like. I slip and fall short on some ice. I'm about to get hit by a giant snowball, but a swift dark figure shoots in front of me, blocking me from the attack. "Chat!" I say. He smiles down at me.

"Sorry to intrude, but I think this snowball fight is getting a bit too cold." He says and gives me a wink.

"How did you…" Frost was starting to say, shock written all across her face. Chat turns around and faces her.

"Oh, well, I clawed my way out of my ice tomb, and when I did, my claws got much sharper." He says, observing his fingers like he got a new pedicure.

"Why you little." She says and gets another snow ball ready. Chat stupidly looks back at me noticing the cut on my cheek. I franticly tried to grab him and push him down, but was only able to pull him down on top of me right before another snowball was just about to hit him in the head. We watch it land on the ground and heard a loud, skull crunching crunch, 'It cracked the concrete?'. Chat was just as surprised as I was.

"Watch your back, or you'll die." I say kiddingly, but it came out very serious as I looked straight into his eyes. Chat looks nervous, but in a flash, a smirk replaced it.

"Don't worry princess. I'll protect you, just as you did for me." He says, and pulls me up. We hear maniacal laugh coming from our foe.

"You can't defeat me! You're surrounded by my power, and I'm not afraid of killing you, but I guess it's easier if your alive to get your miraculous, so let's make a deal. Give me your miraculous's now, and I won't kill you." She says. I heard Chat scoff.

"You won't kill me, trust me. Not with these Cat-like reflexes." He says, then lunges at her. It looks like he's about to grab her, but she disappears in a cloud of snow. Chat safely lands on his face with a grunt. "Ow."

We get surrounded by the woman's spine chilling laughter. By complete instinct I fell quickly to the ground, once again an icicle barely missing me.

By this time, chat has gotten up. "Where are you?" He screeches. There was a burst of wind that picked up snow right behind him. "Chat look out! Behind you!" Just as I said the words, he turned around just as an arm appeared out of thin air. She shot it at him and he dodged. It was much easier to block it when you see it coming. The arm disappears.

"Chat come here! Quickly." I say urgently. She legit wants to kill us.

"What?" He asks.

"Let's go back to back. When you see a large cluster of snow, that means she's going to attack." I tell him.

"Have you found her akuma?" He asks.

"I don't think she has one. Either that, or it's under her dress." I shrug. "Just come on, we don't know where she'll be next."

Upon command, Chat gets behind me and we look for where she'll attack next. This plan worked great, we were easily able to block three of her moves. We hear her start to get angry. I got it, if we keep this up maybe she'll show us her real self.

As if like a bell, I know exactly where her Akuma is located.

"The dress." I whisper.

"The what?"

"The dress. That's where her akuma is."

"So, I have to destroy her dress?" I listen to what he's saying and I get what he's talking about. If he destroys the dress, she'll end up being buck naked.

"Yup." I say, not necessarily happy with it.

After ten minutes of blocking her attacks she snaps. The wind roars and she shrieks.

"Stop it! Just give up!" She shouts. Our plan worked. There was a large cloud of snow, and slowly it revealed Frost.

"NOW!" I say. Chat immediately jumps for her.

"Cataclysm!" He shouts, a dark matter forms in his hand.

"NO!" She shouts and raises her hand. A large amount of ice shoots out of her hand and a dome of ice forms in front of her, engulfing Chat. The orb holding him in was floating in midair.

"Oh, silly kitty, I told you before. You should have given me your miraculous when you were alive when I gave you a chance." She laughs.

The orb starts to go black from Chat's power, but Frost doesn't seem worried. A deep fear runs through me.

"Chat stop!" I shout. Too late, chat shatters his jail orb and time slows down. Chat's furious at her, and to my surprise, has another fist of cataclysm in one of his paws, but it didn't matter. Frost had a relaxed smile on her face. As Chat came closer, she extended her arm out, pointer finger extended. She easily dodged his fist and touched his chest. No, not his chest, his heart! Blue lightning ran through his body, through his veins, and he completely stopped moving, his eyes wide with shock.

"Goodnight sweet kitty." I can hear her whisper in his ear, then laughs. She moves out of the way and lets him fall.

My legs move on their own, running straight for falling Chat. I'm running as fast as I can and tackle his body right before he hit the ground. We flew and I made Chat collapsing right on top of me. He's so heavy, and the impact took the breath right out of me. I gasp and look at Chat in my arms and my heart stops.

He's white, too white, like fallen snow. His chest was bare where she had touched him, a deep purple gouge in his chest, surrounding veins growing purple and blue, turning his skin those colors. His eyes were spaced out. His hair was stiff, completely frozen. Drips of tears fell on his face and my vision became blurry. 'No, not again.' I look at his wound again, and puked.

After I calm down, I shakily check for his pulse, but I couldn't find it, couldn't touch his wrist. My fingers froze when I tried to touch him. I just hold him in my arms. Not sure what to do. I can take him to the wizard guy again, he can save him. Frost laughs maniacally, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"There is no use, he's dead. With my touch, it completely freezes them, through and through. There is now way to bring him back." She says, somewhat prideful. I don't react. I just look at his face. More tears spew from my eyes. 'Nonononono.'

I hold him in my arms. There has to be a way. I just barely notice it, the ringing of his ring, my snuffling drowning it out. I just cradle him in my arms. Then there was a flash of green, but I barely notice it. I hiccup and look down. A small cat-like creature was lying nearby, completely unconscious and cold, but I barely noticed him at the sight in my arms. "No. No." I quiver.

Adrien. "Adrien!" I shout. I cry harder than I ever have before. No! Why was I so dumb? How could I have been so reckless? Why didn't you tell me? "Why didn't you tell me?" I shake as I push him closer to me. Tears pour down my face. No, it was me. Why was I so stupid? It's my fault… my fault.

"Oh, don't worry dear. You'll be warm with him soon where you're going." She says.

"No." I mutter.

"No? Oh, sweetheart, I don't think you have a choice." She says, I can feel her chill behind me.

"No." I say. Heat filling my chest. This can't happen, it can't happen!

"W-what the?" She asks. Oh, her voice, it only makes me angrier. The warmth kept spreading through me. He had a future. He wanted to be a cook. He was my partner, Paris's protector. We were going to go out later. I haven't even given him his German Smoker. The more thoughts that came through my mind, the more tears spewed down my cheeks, the angrier and sadder I got, and the warmer I felt.

"N-No! Stop!" She says. I open my eyes, but everything is different, as if I was in a dream. Everything seemed fake. Adrien seemed more animated in my arms and more alive. Peaceful even. His wound was still there, blue and dark purple, but it was smaller. The snow around me has melted, leaving a circular patch of rich green grass surrounding us. I looked around, time seemed to have stopped. The snow was frozen in place and everything had a light pink hew. I turn around to face Frost. I just look at her, pure fear on her face. 'You should be scared.' A small part of me screams out of nowhere.

"P-Please! Stop!" She says. Tears have stopped flowing from my eyes, but I was still deeply upset. 'Stop what?' Then I felt it, and could see it more clearly. 'A…Ladybug?' I look down at Adrien, then back at Frost.

"You! How could you? He had a future, and you just took it away!"

"I-I'm sorry! I j-just-" I don't let her finish. I clap my hands together, a large amount of power bursting from my clap. There was a loud, bright flash and everything became still.

Everything went white, and a ringing sound formed in my ears. I close my eyes and collapse with exhaustion. No, I can't go unconscious. Adrien. I force myself to open my eyes. Everything was blurry and I couldn't focus on anything. I look around for Adrien, but I find another body first. My eyes clear up, and see that is was Frost, but she looked different. Her skin was normal, but her dress was still white. A wedding gown. A perfect white Christmas gone wrong. I saw her breathing, and sighed. The akuma. It was next to her, but wasn't moving. 'Dead.' I thought.

'Dead.' Adrien. I spot him away from me, and I crawl over to him. His skin. It was normal. His hair, messy and defrosted. I move closer to him, a pain shooting through my body. I rest my head on his chest.

 _Bu-bump Ba-bump_. Tears swell in my eyes. He's alive. He's alive! I hold him in my arms again. His wound was completely gone, only a deep looking scar was left. I hear coughing and look at the little, black tabby cat lying next to us. His Kawami I quickly grab him and cuddle him in my chest to get him warm. I need to get them out of here.

With of the rest of my energy I could muster, I put his Kawami onto Adrien's chest and lift him. 'Get him home.'

I grab my yo-yo and toss it to the nearest light post and aching I ran to his house as fast as I could possible.


	16. Chapter 17- If Only You Knew

Adrien's POV

I feel warm and cold, pain and comfort. I fall in and out of sleep. I would try to open my eyes, but a sharp pain in my head would make me pass out again. I could see flashes of white, black, and red. Nothing made sense, everything blurred together. I heard someone, so silent and distant, _Hold on Adrien, we're almost there._ 'Ladybug?' I pass out again.

A faint beeping noise wakes me from my unconsciousness. I'm in my room, but my focus was placed at my open bedroom window. I have to squint my eyes, but blurrily, I could see her, a dark form against the white sky, looking at me.

"Ladybug?" I say, but it only came out loud enough for me to hear. Another beep. There was a bright pink flash, but the light hurt my head again, so I was forced to look away. I look out the window one more time, to see that the figure was gone, before I fell back into unconsciousness.

The next morning

I wake in a cold sweat. I spring quickly into an upright position, but immediately regret it. I become dizzy and a major head ache surfed my head. Naturally, my hand spring onto my temple to try and stop the pain. After a few moments of pain, I close my eyes until it went away. I probably should not get up yet. I let out a groan and lay back down.

What happened last night? I tried to remember what happened, but when I tried, my head ache worsened. I have some aspirin in my bathroom mirror if I can just-

My second attempt was a bust. My head just hurt too much for me to move. I lay there for a bit, but I hear a yawn beside me. Plagg.

I looked at my little black cat Kawami. He's wrapped in a ball, just getting up. He stretches like a cat and gives a large tired yawn. "Ow." He says and rubs his head.

"Do you have a head ache as well?" I ask him. He looks at me.

"Yeah, and it's killer." He replies.

"Can you move?"

"Yeah." He says and wipes his eyes of tired tears.

"Can you get some aspirin? It's in the bathroom mirror. You can have some too."

"Alright. I'll also get some Camembert." He says.

"That's fine. You need to eat if you're going to take it. Bring some crackers with you for me."

I watch him as he tiredly floats to the bathroom. I grunt in pain as my head starts throbbing again. I take slow steady breaths to try and calm the soreness. I need something to do to stop thinking of this head ache. I look at my nightstand where my phone lies. I guess I can check the media, that might help me get back my memory. The only things I can remember is fighting Frost. I was trapped in this ice bubble, I broke free of it, but my eyes got blurry after I escaped it. I heard her say something, but the words didn't register in by the time I passed out.

I turned on my phone and it went immediately went to my text messages. Oh man. I totally forgot. Marinette. I forgot about her, and our date. As I look at her name, another wave of pain comes over me. I put my phone down.

"Alright, I have your pills and some crackers." He says and puts some pills in my hand, he collapses down on the bed, exhausted.

"Plagg? Are you okay?" I ask.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine. Tired that's all." He says. This is totally not like him. He's usually more sassy than this.

"Plagg. What exactly happened last night?" I ask him. He sighs.

"Do you really want to know?" He asks. I nod my head and ingest the pills and start to eat a cracker.

"You almost died," He says, and I stop eating, and look at him. He didn't speak for a while, sadness in his eyes.

"Frost had the power to freeze anything she touched. She touched your heart and it burned a hole through your skin. That's what that scare is on your chest." I look at my chest to see, but my shirt kept me from seeing it.

"What else do you remember?"

"I don't remember much except we separated at some point, and ladybug had you in her arms. Everything was such a blur, but I think she activated a new power."

"New power?"

"Yeah. Every miraculous holder has special powers that can only be used when they are under extreme pressure. Yours is called Black Combustion."

"Black Combustion?"

"Basically, you can release a form of black light through your chest that only affect the person you're fighting, but you don't have to worry about it."

"Why not? And what do you mean that it only affects the person I'm fighting?"

"Well, let's just say that, unlike Ladybug's power where she heals those around her and doesn't kill anything, your power will kill both the akuma, and the akuma host." He says. His words completely shocking me. I stayed quiet for a while, but a question popped into my mind and I just had to ask.

"So, it's been used before?" I ask him, scared for an answer.

"Yes, but only once, but was needed. It wasn't pleasant, but that miraculous holder saved many people that day."

"Care to share?"

"No!" He says a bit too quickly. "Sorry, I-I just don't like talking about it." He says, more calmly. I look at the cracker in my hand. I didn't want to eat it. I realized that the pain in my head was gone.

"It's fine Plagg. You don't have to do anything unless you want to." I say. "Now, I need to go take a shower." I look at Plagg, but he didn't reply. I was going to say something else, to comfort Plagg, but I don't. I enter my bathroom and take a deep breath. So much for a good morning. I look into my mirror that was still open from when Plagg got the pills. I close it and look into my reflection.

I look like I did die. My skin tone was ghastly white, and dark. Tired, gray circles were under my eyes. My hair was a rat's nest and my close had rips and tears in it. I definitely don't look like a model.

I take off my shirt and look at my chest. Sure enough, there was a scar right at my heart. It was brand new, but it looked faded, like I've had it forever. I touched it and there was no pain, but instead, there was a soft warmth that came with it. _She heals those around her._ Ladybug.

I suddenly get frustrated. Isn't it my job to protect her? Aren't I supposed to help the damsel in distress? But the roles have switched. She has saved my life twice so far, all because I was senseless. No wonder she doesn't like me. And now she knows who I really am. How pathetic am I?

I try to think more positively. Am I glad she saved me? Yes. Am I going to thank her later? Of course. Am I going to do something stupid later and have her save my butt again. Probably. Do I still love her? Most defiantly, even more so now that I owe her big time.

I just want to protect her, I'll even through my own life away to save her. I'm such an idiot.

I take the rest of my clothes off and get into the shower. I let my mind wander as I try not to think of last night. Marinette creeps into my mind. I have to give her an explanation for why I didn't show up yesterday. I wish I could tell her the truth. _If only she knew._

Marinette's POV

 _Marinette_. I small voice calls from a distance. It echoes through my mind, but I hardly understand it.

 _Marinette!_ It says again. I try to grasp who was saying it. Sounds familiar, but it's too far away for me to know.

 _Please Marinette you have to wake up!_ The little voice is yelling now. I can hear it more clearly. Tikki. But I don't want to wake up. I feel a hard slap on my cheek and I wake up.

My hand goes up to my cheek, and I slowly open my eyes. A worried looking Tikki is right in my face.

"What was that for?" I ask her. She suddenly looked relieved.

"Oh, Marinette. Don't scare me like that." She says and gives me a hug. I hold her, but I'm confused.

"Scare you?"

"Yeah, you've been asleep for quite a long time. After you got home, you collapsed in your bed. You've been asleep for the whole night and half of the day." She says, still holding me. Then all the events from yesterday flashed in my mind like a movie. My fight with Frost, then Chat's death, then the weird power that came over me.

"Tikki, what was that thing I did last night? I've never done it before." I say and start to sit up.

"Oh," She says and releases me of the hug. "You must be talking about Flutter Light." She says.

"Flutter Light?" I ask. What a weird name.

"Yes, I know it's a weird name, I'm not the one who came up with it," She says as if she read my thoughts. "That's the name of the power that you used yesterday. What you did was basically what you do with your yo-yo and lucky charm all put together. You used it and it purified everything. You healed Chat's wound in his chest and you purified the akuma from Frost." She says.

"I-I thought I killed the akuma. It wasn't moving." Tikki just stared at me, like I was dumb.

"No silly. Your power is creation and life. You didn't kill it. It was probably tired. The dark power in it took most of its energy, and your power took everything out of it. You didn't hurt it. I promise." She says. As her words came out, the more I felt relieved. I was so upset when I saw it, but then I got a little preoccupied with Adrien.

Adrien. Oh my gosh.

"Chat is Adrien?!" I say franticly, and jump out of bed. I start to pace.

"Well, yeah. Actually, you remember when you were at Adrien's house, snuggling it up?" Yes, I remember, and I really don't (but really do) like to think about it. I nod me head, "Well, that night, that's when I found out he was Chat Noir."

"How?"

"Well, that night I met with his Kawami, Plagg."

"Oh, his name is Plagg. You know him?" I ask. Although her skin is red, I could still tell she was blushing.

"Yeah, I know him." She says dreamily. I raise my eyebrow at her and she looks away, "But we're just friends. I haven't seen him in decades. Sure we had something before, but things got complicated, so we don't see each other anymore." She says quickly. I look at her with sympathy.

"Hey, don't feel so bad. Next time I meet with Adrien, I'll bring you along. Maybe he'll bring Plagg with him." I say to comfort her, "Now, I need to go take a shower, I feel disgusting."

"Marinette, there is one more thing about Flutter Light you should know about."

"What?"

"Flutter light takes a lot of energy, out of me and you. Expect that you will want sleep longer and more often, and when you're Ladybug, you may not be able to run as fast, and your weapon might not do exactly what you want to, meaning that your Lucky Vision won't work and you'll have to figure it out on your own." She says flatly.

"How long will it last?" I ask.

"About two weeks." So that means the rest of winter break. Great.

"Okay, well, I'm going to be in the shower if you need me." I say and head to the bathroom.

I take my clothes off and jump into the shower. I turned on the water and a steady stream of warm water falls onto my dirty, overworked skin. Shower time is the best time to think so I rethink yesterday's fight that seems so unrealistic.

My final thoughts landed on Adrien. I try to connect the lines between him and Chat, but I can't. There are too many differences in their personalities. Chat is a flirtatious, heroic, strong, pain in my butt, and Adrien is a sweet, good looking, kind, smart, lovable person. There is no doubt in my mind that they're the same person, but why is Adrien so different when the mask is on. Honestly, I would be totally lying if I said that I don't want to date him. I like how he's always there for me, and he really is the first guy to flirt with me directly. I find his confidence attractive. If only he could apply it to his real self.

I wonder what he would do if he found out who I really am. A normal, clumsy, school girl, nothing like Ladybug. I chuckle to myself. _If only he knew._


	17. Chapter 18- Surprise Visit

I observe the wound on my cheek. Turns out my power heals those around me completely, not really the same for me though. Last night, I swear that It was a very deep cut, but today it's just a thin scab. You can't even see it from a while away.

I walk out into my bedroom and my legs briefly give out under me. This must be what Tikki was warning me about. I slowly pick myself up make my way across the room, my legs feeling like lead. I laid on my bed and just stared out the window. It's still snowing outside, and even though it was pure and perfect looking, it's cold scared me. I've finally decided that I'm a summer type of girl.

I hear my phone buzzing, but I don't want to check it. It's probably from the Lady Blog on last night's fight. Alya finally persuaded me to get the app, so now my feed is always showing pictures of me fighting. It gets annoying after a while. I continue to stare out the window, and my phone keeps buzzing. Nope, don't want to see it. I don't want to remember yesterday's nightmare. It buzzes again. Agitated, I grab my phone to turn off notifications.

 _15 unread messages. 2 Adrien, 13 Alya_

Oh, gosh. I totally forgot about Alya. When I turned into Ladybug, I totally forgot about her. She's probably so peeved with me right now. I quickly turn my phone on and skim through

her messages.

 **Girl are you done talking to your mom?**

 **~Alya**

 **Marinette, where are you? You've been gone for a while.**

 **~Alya**

 **Please message me back, I can't find you anywhere.**

 **~Alya**

 **Please reply back, I found a whole in one of the windows. Did you escape? It's like ice!**

 **~Alya**

These messages were basically written over and over. Oh boy. What do I tell her? That I got captured by Frost? I don't know. I feel so bad. I should have texted her right when I've gotten home. Geeze, I'm such a turd. I finally manage to text her back.

 **Oh my gosh Alya! I'm so sorry. My phone died as soon as I finished calling my mom. And yes, I was captured by Frost. IDK why though. Thanks for worrying for me, but don't worry I'm fine. Ladybug got her before anything happened to me.**

 **~Marinette**

I hope that that's good enough for an explanation. Man, I really hate lying to her. There have been multiple times where I would be super close to telling her the truth about me. How I can't wait to see her face when she finds out the person she fans over the most is her best friend. Her reply to me was instantaneous.

 **OH THANK GOODNESS! I've been worried the whole night! I was just about to call the police. Where did you go?**

 **~Alya**

 **After Ladybug defeated frost, I went home.**

 **~Marinette.**

 **Well, thank goodness you're alright. You gave me one heck of a scare. Please, never do that again!**

 **~Alya**

 **Yeah, I promise. Hey, I gtg. I'm ganna take a nap.**

 **~Marinette**

 **Oh, okay. You probably need it. Text me if you need anything!**

 **~Alya**

 **Can do. Ttyl.**

 **~Marinette**

That was it. I'm glad that she didn't ask too many questions. Again, I hate lying to her. I hate lying in general, but sometimes you just have to. The next thing I do is look at Adrien's messages.

 **Marinette, I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to make it last night!**

 **~Adrien**

 **I was busy, but I promise I'll make it up to you soon!**

 **~Adrien**

I don't know how to respond to him, so I don't answer. I want to answer, it's just that I can't. Last night keeps running through my head and it scares me. I do want to know how he's doing, but I just can't talk to him right now. I put my phone on my tabletop and look at my alarm clock. It's almost one P.M. I feel my stomach grumble so I get up and go downstairs for breakfast (or would it be lunch?). I walk down my bedroom stairs and meet the surprised stairs from my parents. Mom and Dad were in the living room watching the television. It's lunchtime so they're on break.

"Oh Marinette! Why are you here? Alya told us you stayed at her place last night." Dad asks. Me at Alya's house? What? I connect the dots. Oh, I guess Alya didn't want my parents to think I was missing. 'Thank you Alya' I whisper in my head.

"Uh, well, I didn't sleep well last night so I decided to come home. It was really early in the morning when I got here, so that's why I slept in so late. Sorry, I should have told you." Lies.

"It's fine dear. Have some breakfast." She says. I nod and comply, noticing that I'm practically starving. I quickly grab myself a bowl of cheerios and some milk and eat. I'm midway through my bowl when the doorbell rings. I look at my parents.

"I believe that's for you Marinette." Dad says. I look at them curiously. Mom and Dad look suspiciously at each other and I get nervous. For me? What for? I get up and make myself downstairs. The instant I see the black limousine, I immediately turn my little behind around, and go straight up the stairs. I cover my face with my hands, a blush going on my cheeks. No, no, no, nonono. He can't be here. Not right now. I pass my parents and go up to my room. I can hear my parents get up.

"Marinette, the door." Dad says.

"Can you guys get it for me? I have to do something." Before they could answer I head up to my room and slam the door closed. Tikki notices that I'm freaking out and rushes to the rescue.

"Marinette. I noticed Adrien's car up front. Are you okay?" She squeaks. I nod my head but don't speak. I start to pace the room.

"Why is he here? I don't want to go. At least right now. Not after what just happened. Tikki, how can I face him without flashbacks?"

"Marinette, take deep breaths. It's fine. He's fine. Aren't you glad? Didn't you want to find out if he's okay?" She says. I take in her words and I reflect myself. Adrien, even after everything that's happened has decided to come visit, regardless that he just died. And speaking of which, he's not dead, that's good. Why am I like this? Shouldn't I be down there asking if he's really okay. Shouldn't I be glad that he's able to walk again?

"Yes. I'm glad. And yes, I did want to find out if he's okay, but I can't trust myself right now." I say and rub my face, suddenly extremely exhausted.

"Marinette, he's here right now. For you. Don't you think you should go down and at least say hi?" Tikki says. I take in her words. I'm being such a dweeb. He's here, literally at my front door and I'm too scared to face him.

"Yeah, I really should, I'm sorry. It's just everything happened so fast with me finding out who Chat is, and that he's actually my biggest crush, and that he almost died. I just don't think I can do it. I'll go, but I need one thing, Tikki, can you come with me?" I ask.

"Of course!" She says, happy to comply. I pull out my purse and she hops inside. I look at my bedroom door for a bit. You got this Marinette. It's just a few steps. No biggy. Just. A. Twist. Of. A. Handle.

I grip my bedroom door handle, but it twists on it's own. I jump in surprise, letting out an unattractive screech. I look at the cute, blond hair, green eyed boy that has stolen my heart just like I would to a spider.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. Your parents said you were up here." Adrien says and finishes making his way up. I just stand there awkwardly at him, silently watching him make his way around the room while I'm screaming on the inside.

He looks around my pink walls, and finally his focus lands on me. I'm still standing in the same spot, gawking at him.

"Are you okay with me being up here? I called your parents earlier, I thought they would tel-"

"It's fine. You're totally fine. Uh, it's just that my parent's didn't tell me about you coming, and I didn't really want company today." I say. Oh you idiot. What did you just say?

"Oh, if you really don't want any company, I'll just go." He says toyingly, a boyish smile on his face. He starts for the door.

"No!" I say, a bit too quickly. "I'm actually glad you came over. It's just that today I've been really tired." I say.

"Oh, I'm sorry if I interrupted any plans. I just wanted to apologize. I was really busy."

"Yeah, I know." I blurt.

"What?"

"I-I mean, I know. You told me. It's alright though. I was busy too. I wouldn't have been able to go." (but as it turned out, we were both busy for the same thing) I also wanted to say.

"Are you sure you're not up for going out?" He asks.

"Yeah. Sorry. We can go out some other time though. Tomorrow evning?" How am I even saying this?

Adrien smiles at me pleased, "yeah, for sure. It's a date." He says giddily. A slight blush forms on my cheek. I feel an eyelash go into my eye so I go up to scratch it. Adrien watches my hand, but he stops when he notice's my cheek. I watch as his expression change completely.

Quickly, he reaches for my face, turns it to the side, and gently touches the scab on my cheek.

"Marinette? What is this? How did you get this?" He's tone suddenly turned serious.

"Oh I, uh, tripped down the stairs yesterday. Y-you know, regular clumsy me." I say, shivering under Adrien's touch, making my legs feel like jelly. He was closely examining my small wound. We're so close together that I can feel his breath in my face. I could smell some type of cologne on him. I don't know what it was, but it made my head spin. His face was inches from mine. My heart was beating so fast and so loud I thought I would pop. We make eye contact again. Adrien's expression was mixed with concern and worry, the mix of the two expressions made Chat reflect in my vision.

What was I doing? I've never been so close to him before. I lift my hand up to meet his. I grab it and bring it back down and take a little step back.

"Adrien, I promise. I'm fine. It's just a scratch." I say. Adrien chuckles a little bit, but his concern was still plastered to his face.

He gives me a small smile and looks down. I follow his gaze and realize we're still holding hands. I scream again on the inside. I tried to let go, but Adrien held firmly to mine. His hands are so smooth, so caring and fit just right in mine. His touch was like a drug. I wanted it more than anything and I never really wanted to let go.

"Well, m'lady. If I must go, let me go with a little parting gift." He says, and before I can do anything, he lifts my hand to his mouth and gives it a kiss. When his lips touched my skin, my whole body felt a deadly shock that completely paralyzed me. I couldn't breath and all the blood rushed to my brain, leaving my legs wobbly and weak. I wanted to melt into a puddle, but my legs, somehow, held firmly in place.

After a length of about two seconds, he releases me and my soul releases from my body.

Adrien steps back, "I'll see you tomorrow then?" He asks.

I just stare at him like an idiot. He then makes his way out the door without saying another word, a cheesy smile across his face at my reaction. It's only when he closes my door when I snap back to the real world. A thought rushing into my head. The German Smoker. Quicker than I thought I could ever go possible, I search my room high and low for Adrien's little gift. "Ah ha!" I shout when I finally find it.

I hurry back down following Adrien, hopefully I'm not too late. I pass my curious parents and bust through the back bakery doors. Adrien is almost to the limo. I rush through the front door, the doorbell chime startling Adrien.

"H-hey, y-you forgot my gift" I say trying my best not to wheeze through my words. It takes all my will power to not cough up a lung. I extend the mini human shaped figurine to him. He looks confused at first, but then a kind grin blissfully appears on his face.

"Oh, Mari. I totally forgot about the gift exchange." He says. He walks up to me and gingerly takes my gift. "It's charming. I'll cherish it forever."

I give him a pleased smile, glad he liked it. Adrien gets into the car and waves goodbye. I wave back at him until the car goes out of sight. I hear a chirp from my phone, and thinking it was from Adrien I immediately turned on my phone. Well, I was half wrong. It was a private message on the Ladyblog from Chatblack1, Chat Noirs username.

 _ **Ladybug, I need to talk to you. Meet me at the Eiffel Tower tonight. Until then, adieu my lady.**_

 _ **~Chatblack1**_


	18. Chapter 19- You Know Me

**Adrien's POV**

 **That night**

I'm sitting on the edge of one of the hand rails on the top of the Eiffel Tower. Sure, it's dangerous, but you couldn't beat the fresh air blowing from up here, and Fresh air is exactly what I need right now. Ladybug and I have a lot to discuss. The same things have been going around constantly through my head. I look up into the sky at the countless stars above my head. What a sight to look at. Even with the very luminous light from the city around me and the resent bad weather, the sky is completely clear and I'm still able to see many of the white specks of light sparkling the sky.

"Chat, I know that cats have good balance, but are you sure it's smart to tango with death?" An exquisite, songlike voice says behind me.

"Don't worry. It's become a habit for me now. I like how danger tastes when I have to be brought back to life." I say, still looking at the sky.

"How about how it looks on your body?" She asks. I finally look at her, a bit surprised at her statement. Seeing that I don't understand what she meant, she continued, "Your scar. I'm talking about your scar." She says. Hesitantly, I slowly bring one foot over then the other to face Ladybug, although I'm still sitting.

"It's fine. You can barely see it." He says. I'm contemplating whither to show it to her, but Ladybug starts first.

"Can I see it?" She asks. I look at her with wide eyes and my jaw drops to the floor. Never have I ever imagined that my lady would ask me to declothe myself.

"Oh, why of course, my lady. But maybe, we should do this in a more, private area?" I ask seductively. Catching to what I was saying, I get a rewarded blush from her, but like I thought she would, she gave me an _you're so stupid_ look. I love that look.

She takes a step towards me and I raise my hands up in surrender.

"All right my lady. Since you insist of me taking my shirt off in such cold weather, I ask of you one thing." She crosses her arms and gives me a raised eyebrow.

"I'm going to warm your body with mine, in any way, if that's what you're asking." She says.

"Oh, my plans have been foiled. I guess that's no deal then." I say. She takes a demanding step closer to me.

"Fine, fine. I guess it was too much to ask for." I say and cling onto my zipper bell near my neck. I unbutton the over buttons, then quickly zip my jacket down, exposing my entire chest. Instantly the cold hits my body and sends a wave of cold goose bumps up and down my body. Ladybug just stares at me.

"Y-you know I just wanted a quick glance at your chest wound, not your abs." She says cautiously.

"I know. I thought that you would be able to see it better, and enjoy the view." I say and wiggle my eyebrows. She looks at my bare chest. She closes the space between us with three long strides, her fingers going straight for the scare.

"It looks a lot better from the last time I've seen it." She says, and caresses is innocently. Her touch was like a shock of lightning. For a moment it stopped my heart, then it took my breath away. The cold was gone, I was on cloud nine, the warmth of her touch made me as hot as fire. It took all the will I could muster to not fall onto the ground faint. For some reason though, it feels familiar.

She continued to study my chest for a while. My body betrays me as it lets out a soft moan as she puts her whole hand over the wound. She looks at my face. I can feel heat rising to my cheeks over what I just did. I can see the same thing happening to her as well, which kind of made me happy. She finally realized the awkwardness of this whole problem and quickly takes her hand away and gives a fake cough. I could see her mind racing.

"Um, yeah. It looks, uh, much b-better." She says and quickly steps back. I look at her with a daydream stare. Did that really just happen? I must be dreaming.

"Chat, I know that you wanted to show off and everything, but please. I don't want you to get hyperthermia. I've seen the scar, now put your suite back on." She says. I look back at her, a simple smirk creeping on my lips.

"You know who I am right?" I ask her, remembering how Plagg had told me that she held me in her arms while we have separated

"Oh, y-yeah. About that. Yes. I do. When Frost touched you, she froze your heart, basically killing you, I guess. Well, since you used your cataclysm and you lost power over your own body, it must have made you detransform." She says quietly and slowly, like what she was saying was forbidden, which I guess in a way was.

There was an uncomfortable silence between us. The cold decided to come back, so I start to put my suite jacket back on.

We just stare at each other again. I try to break the silence.

"Are you disappointed?" I ask while finished clipping the last of my buttons. There was a moment of silence. I was about to say more but Ladybug answers first.

"Disappointed? Why would I be disappointed? I'm definitely not upset about it. I just found out that Paris's top hottest model is also one of Paris's top hottest hero's. Disappointed? Not at all. Surprised? Very much yes." She says, nervously fast. As I watch her, I can sense her getting more and more tired. After she finished she let out a loud sigh and puts a hand to her forehead. She makes it towards a railing and rests her arms on the bars. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

I make my way over to her and copy her position. We share a bit of silence as we look down at our city. It looked beautiful from up here. Everything was normal, but my world has now become totally different.

"By your reaction, I believe that you are more attracted to me? I mean, sure, I'm Chat Noir, but hey, since I'm Adrien Agreste, I'm way more valuable." I say way more bitterly than I really wanted it to be. I bet that's why she's acting so weird around me tonight. That's why she asked me to take of my jacket. Who wouldn't want to see the body of "Paris's top hottest model" as she puts it.

"No, that's not it. I'm trying to figure you out now. I'm trying to match Chat Noir with Adrien Agreste. You guys are totally different. You have two different personalities, and this whole ideal seems too unreal." She says, sounding worn-out. I let the silence between us grow, but I don't let it linger. I knew we were going to talk about this. It was one of the thoughts that bugged me earlier.

"Do I know you?" I ask, but don't look at her. Ladybug looks at me with a sad, guilty, upset expression that hurt my heart. I quickly restate what I said, "In real life, I mean." After looking at me, Ladybug looks and focuses on the city streets below, contemplating something.

After a while she spoke, a bit more cheerfully and playful, "Didn't I already give you a clue before?" She says.

I sigh, "We're still playing this game?" I ask.

"Of course we are. I know that I beat you to it, but you still need to figure me out." She says and turns her attention back to me. I can see some determination in her eyes, something that's totally Ladybug. She's not going to give in so easily.

"Alright then. Technically you didn't play by the rules. I died. I unwillingly showed you who I was. So, since I've given you grace, you will give me," I pause and think. "Three clues to who you are." I say and hold up three fingers. I can feel a mischievous smile form on my cheeks.

"Chat, I don't think that's fair."

"Want me to make if five?"

"Alright, alright. Let me think." She says. She looks into the distance and her fingers scratch her chin as she thought. I watch her as she contemplates her clues.

After a bit of time, she answers.

"Okay, first off I'll repeat with what I told you before. I'm best friends with the person who adores me the most." I nod my head.

"Secondly, to answer your previous question, yes, I do know you in real life. Very well in fact." She let that settle in. I know her outside the suit? That alone made me excited.

"The final two clues are, one, I like to work with sugar, and two, I like batman movies." She says. I gawk at her. Okay what? Why does she have to be so vague? She likes batman movies? Works with sugar? What are those supposed to mean? Maybe I should have made it five.

"You can't be serious?" I ask.

"Oh I am. And when you figure it out, you'll realize how easy my hints really are." She says. She gets out her yo-yo and twirls it around in a circle, giving me a devious look.

"I have to go Chat, I have plans tomorrow and I'm tired. I bet you have something planed as well, so I'll leave with a parting gift." She says and stops playing with her yo-yo. She closes the room between us. I don't know what happened, but it was like my soul was taken from my body, I was unable to move. She touched my cheek and turned it to the side. She stood on her tiptoes to reach my height, and a warm feeling rose through my body. Where lips touched skin was like fire, so alive and quick, but the rest of my body completely lost hold of itself and wanted to collapse. She doesn't waste another second and outstretches her yo-yo and descends down the tower.

Realizing her leave, I fall out of the trance and speed towards the railing she just jumped down. "My lady! Wait!" I scream, but I was too late. She was gone in the city below. You can't do that! This is the second time she's done that. Left me stranded someplace looking like a total fool. I give a chuckle. Oh Ladybug. I will find you by the end of the week. "I promise." I whisper like a promise to God.

 **Marinette's POV**

Oh, please don't tell me I just did that.

I jump off the Eiffel Tower and drop about 800 feet before recoiling my yo-yo and latch it onto a street lamp. I'm flying through the city at a very fast pace. Did I really just kiss Adrien? My longtime crush? And I kissed him like it was nothing! How did such confidence abide in me, even though I knew it was Adrien? Was it because he was in his Chat suite that made it so much easier to show affection to him? Ugh, my head is super confused. I really like Adrien, but I can't stand Chat. What does that make me feel? The same? No, not the same. Now that I know that Chat is Adrien, I'm obviously going to be nicer to Chat, but then again, I just did something to Chat that I would never do if I was talking to Adrien.

Oh, and I also asked to see his chest. That's another thing I would never have asked Adrien. 'To see his scar.' Please. Sure that's really what I wanted to see, but I couldn't help myself wanting to see his model body. His strong, broad chest, super smooth skin, and super fit- No! I can't be thinking like this. I will just die the next time I see him, knowing I've seen him practically half-naked. I major blush forms onto my cheeks as I look back at the things I've seen.


	19. Chapter 20- Missing

**Marinette's POV**

I wake up from a loud slam of a door. My eyes fly open unsure if it was in real life or in the dream I can't remember. I look out my window, and it's still pitch black outside. Ugh, it's too early to get up. If there is one thing I like more than fashion design, it would have to be sleep. I try to look at the alarm clock, but my eyesight was all screwy because my eyes are still asleep. I think its midnight, but I'm not so sure.

I try to sleep but my brain betrays me and keeps me up. I look at the time again; it reads 1:15 a.m. It felt like maybe ten minutes but an hour has past. Okay, obviously I'm not going to sleep, so maybe getting up and moving will help.

I release the covers, and the cold temperature of the room engulfs me. Burr. I walk awkwardly and ungracefully to my closet and grab a hoodie. After making myself comfortable, I go to my bedroom door, but I stop before I open it. I hear voices. None that I recognize. Could that have been why I heard a door slam? Could they be house intruders?

I run to my working desk and grab the thickest textbook I can find. I hold up my book in defense as I open the door in one fell swoop. I run down the stairs with the book over my head, ready to whack anybody who dares to fight me. I look around the room, trying to see anyone in black trying to take our television audio setup, but I was alone.

At first I don't realize, but the voices I heard up stairs were from the TV. It was on an Old-timed show. I can't remember what it's called but it's one of Mom and Dad's favorite movies. I look around to see if my parents are around, but there isn't anyone around. I quickly turn off the television and get a drink of water. Maybe mom and dad were watching it and decided to go to bed and forgot to turn off the TV. I was too tired to think of a better explanation. I chug the cup of water and go back upstairs. I look at the textbook in my hands and realize how stupid of a weapon it was. I make it to bed, and just like I hoped, my eyes get heavy and I drift back to sleep.

 **Next morning**

I wake up slowly from my empty, dreamless sleep. I squint my eyes as I try to adjust them the my brightly lit room. For a bit, I just stare at the other end of the room, staring into space, not thinking of anything in particular. I give into a yawn and sit up. I'm still wearing my hoodie from last night, which helped protect me from the cold. I give a long, much needed stretch. Today is Saturday, so I have to help my parents really early this morning in the bakery. I check the alarm clock, it's 10:45. 10:45?! I've slept for 12 hours?

I jump out of bed wide awake and quickly get dressed. Why did mom not wake me up this morning to have me help with the bakery? I hear Tikki start to wake up when I run into the bathroom. I take the fastest shower I've ever taken, only shampooing my hair and wash my body, not caring for conditioner or face scrub. I run out of the bathroom and completely dry myself off. I wrap my hair in the towel as I get dressed. I look at the clock again, 11:14. I'll be downstairs in time to help them with the lunch rush hour.

I pull on some shoes and wave at Tikki, who decided to go back to sleep. I feel bad. Me going super-fast through the city apparently completely drained her. I'll remember to be more careful next time. I grab a few Oreo cookies that is so conveniently keep in my dresser drawer, and leave it next to Tikki for when she wakes up.

I head downstairs and grab myself a quick croissant. I butter it slightly and hastily eat it. I grab my apron on a hanger near the door that leads to downstairs. I pull it over my head and tie the back of it as I'm running downstairs. I burst into the kitchen.

"Mom, Dad, I'm so sorry I over slept I prom-" I stop. I look around the kitchen. Neither of them are in here. In the bakery? I speed walk into the front room, but again, they're not there either. I look at the front door; the sign is turned over to the closed side. Well, technically, we're supposed to have been open five hours ago. I flip the sign to the " _We're open. Come on in!"_ side and start to unlock the door to find that it was already unlocked. What the…?

I look out into the streets. No one was out today. Where did everybody go? I quickly go upstairs in search for my parents.

"Mom? Dad? Where are you?" I say over and over. Within ten minutes into my search, I'm screaming those words. I'm in shear panic. I turn on the TV. Maybe there will be something on. Nothing. There's nothing. Every channel had blank, black, static screens that made a noise that made my ears hurt. I turn it off. I'm so confused. I run upstairs and check my phone for any messages from Alya, Mom, from anybody. Nothing. I look at Tikki who's wide awake from my screaming.

"Marinette? Is everything okay?" She asks. I shake my head.

"I- I don't know." I say. I look at the stairs that leads me to the roof/ upstairs balcony. I run up the stairs as fast as I can, if my guesses are correct then…

A blast of cold breeze hits my body like a truck but I try to ignore it. I look around, no one is in sight. No one on the streets at all. Gone, they're all gone. Tikki follows me.

"Marinette?" She says.

"Tikki, I know that you're really tired, but somethings wrong. I need to be ladybug. Everyone has disappeared and I need to find them." I say a bit quickly. Tikki nods her head.

"Tikki spots on!" I shout.

 **Adrien's POV**

I've looked everywhere for anyone, but they're all gone. Just gone. Poof, just like someone made them disappear. I noticed it when Natalie didn't come in to make sure I had breakfast and that I was up. I even slept in until 9:30, which never happens. I also noticed that there was no one outside either. After a bit of panic, I forced Plagg to stop eating camembert and turned me into Chat Noir. Oh, my lady. I hope you're alright.

I jump out of my bedroom window and stormed the streets in search for any sort of life. For the longest time, the only color that I've seen is white, from the snow. I've made a full loop of Paris when I finally stop to take a break, completely out of breath. No one at all, not even ladybug. He takes his staff and calls Ladybug. Come on, pick up. Pick up please. I say. After a while, I'm just about to close it when I've lost all hope, she finally picks up.

"Oh my gosh. Chat! Thank goodness you're alright." She says. She must have been running through the city as well because she is just as winded as me.

"Oh my lady. Your voice has given me fifteen more years of life. I was so worried that I was left all alone in this cold, cold world." I say.

"Chat, now is not the time to make fool of yourself. This is serious. Meet me at the Louvre right now. I'll see you then." She says and we lose contact before I could say my goodbyes. Geeze, why does she have to give me the cold shoulder? I follow her instructions and make haste.

I arrive first so I look around the area for any life forms. After a few minutes, I hear Ladybug's yo-yo. I turn just in time to see her aim miss its target, a nearby lamp post, and fly straight for the ground screaming. Before I could understand what was happening, my feet move on their own and I catch her just as she's about to land on the ground head first.

After skidding to a stop, I lift her up into a sitting position.

"Ladybug. Are you all right?" I ask her. She looked at me dazed.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." She says.

"What was with your aim? I've never seen you like this." I ask, full of concern.

"Oh, uh, well. When I used the power, Flutter Light, it used up most of Tikki's power, so I'm going to be slower, and my yo-yo isn't going to work like it normally does." She says.

"Flutter Light? What kind of name is that?" I ask.

"I didn't name it." She says and starts to get up, but falls down again. It took all my will power not to laugh at her clumsiness. I stand up first and lend her a hand which she gladly takes.

"Have you found anyone?" I ask.

"Nope. Not a soul. Both of my parents are gone and none of my friends have replied to my messages." She says. I can see in her eyes that she's fallen into a bit of despair.

"Don't worry m'lady. We'll find everyone. We'll defeat this akuma holder just like we've always have." I say encouragingly.

"Are you sure it's an akuma who did this?" She asks.

"Of cou-" I start to say.

"Aw, isn't that cute. Chat Noir and Ladybug all alone together. How romantic. I can see why everyone calls you the hottest couple." A familiar voice says above us. My focus turns to the voice, shocked. It's lady Wi-Fi who spoke, but there were also four other previous akuma holders behind her. The bubbler (no Nino!), Mr. Pigeon, Symon Says, and Poseidon, all of them laughing at Lady Wi-Fi's comment. She gets out her phone and calls someone. "We've got 'em boss." Then she laughs maniacally.

Suddenly all of them turn still, all of them looking out into the distance. Their eyes start to glow a weird, purplish light. And if that doesn't sound a bit creepy, they started to talk in union.

"Ladybug, Chat Noir greetings! I'm so happy to meet you in person. Well, not really. Ladybug, I want to thank you for your spectacular performance on our dear friend Frost. You put on a marvelous show. Even so that it made me want to do a little bit of extra research. How expedient it is to know that each Miraculous holder holds a special power." They stopped to let that set in.

"As you have presumed, yes, I, Hawk Moth, was the reason why everyone is missing. I present to you, complete control." All the voices say and extend their arms outwards. "I can control anyone who is not a miraculous holder, and anyone who was once a Akuma holder. As you can see, they all have the powers that I've once bestowed upon them. Although, for a price. Your Miraculous's. Quiver in fear of me, Hawk Moth. Give your Miraculous's to me now, and I might show you some mercy." They all say and extend a hand out to us, like they're about to grab a gift.

I wait for a bit to see if they were going to say anymore, not that I really cared. "Oh wow! And how long did it take you to write out that whole thing?" I yell to the group so Hawk Moth can hear me. "I'm touched that you put so much effort into wanting to meet us. You have to be our biggest fan!" I say, with sarcastic joy.

"And to think that you would have learned by now. You already know our answer. You're going to have to get it the hard way." Ladybug says totally ignoring my comment, then all of a sudden she's grabs my wrist and pulls me along as we sprint away. I hear a growl from the group behind us and I look back. My first mistake. They're chasing us and are catching up quickly. They're eyes have stopped glowing, but they all share the same determined, upset expression on their faces.

All of a sudden, Ladybug's energy seemed to have been sapped out of her. She starts breathing heavily and is gradually slowing down. I look back again to see Lady Wi-Fi getting an attack ready for us. I sped up to run next to Ladybug. With one fell swoop I pick up Ladybug. She gives me a shriek of protest and I pick up pace again. I turn down a familiar road and keep running. I run in a zig-zag form so I could easily dodge Lady-Wi-Fi's attacks. Right before Lady Wi-Fi could hit me again, I quickly dodge into a nearby alley way.

I've snuck away from home plenty of times in the past to try to get away from my business life. While I was away, everyone would search for me, so I was forced to hide. The alley ways were practically my second home. Quite appropriate for Paris's favorite tomcat. I navigate the lanes with ease. After running through the backstreets and knowing for sure that they lost us, I stopped at the back of Marinette's bakery where there was a giant dumpster. I see Ladybug's eyes widen in my arms.

"Don't you dare." She says. I look down at her and give her a devious smile. Yes, I would dare.

I open the lid with one hand and ungracefully throw her in. I quickly follow suit. I'm surprised when I find the interior is mostly empty. I expected it to be filled with moldy pastries or something, but no. There were only five full bags of trash in it and the walls and floor were slippery with mold, which I guess is gross.

"I can't believe you just did that." Ladybug whisper/shouts at me. I shush her. She folds her arms and quietly stomps her foot. I shush her again (to somewhat make fun of her) and I listen. We wait in silence and after a few minutes and there's no noise.

"I think we lost them." I say and begin to open the trash door. Just as I'm about to open it though, I hear Lady Wi-Fi, probably 20 meters from us. I didn't even know she was there. If I have opened it even a second earlier, we would have definitely been found out.

"Drats. Where did you go, you stupid street cat!" She shouts. I don't move an inch. Ladybug did the same. Lady Wi-Fi's phone rings and we only hear her side of the conversation.

"Did you find them?... Then why are you… go on… Oh, well. Sir. It seems that we've lost them momentarily…yes sir. Yes, Hawk Moth, I'm on my way." I then hear the click of her phone closing. "Everyone! Change of plans. Hawk Moth needs us to deal with the troops. Let's go!" She shouts. I make the mistake of trying to move my foot. It makes a slimy, somewhat loud sound. I hold in a gasp as I hear Lady Wi-Fi's feet stop through the snow, right towards us. She stops right in front of us. I can hear her breathing. We've been found. Maybe I should jump out and get her while no one is around. I'm about to move into action but I hear another voice.

"Lady, what are you doing. Hawk Moth needs us, and if he called you, then it must be an emergency. Now let's go!" I partially recognize the voice. It belonged to Nathanial. I hear Alya grunt in frustration, but hear her stomp away. I look at Ladybug and we stare at each other, not daring to even breath. We let a few minutes pass by, then I get the courage to finally open the lid. I only take a peak first to look around, then I dare to open it further. I stick my head out and look above us.

"The coast is clear." I say, still silent. I hear Ladybug give a deep sigh.

"That was close." She says.

"Way too close." I say. I open the lid completely and pick her up. She hits me on the shoulder.

"Chat, it was nice of you to carry me earlier when I could help myself, but I'm perfectly capable of crawling out of this dumpster." She says.

"Oh, but I just have to. It's so fun so see you all flustered." I say. Before she can say anything else about her independence, I jump out of the dumpster. I tried not to laugh as Ladybug screamed. When I land on the ground with a heavy thud, Ladybug is practically strangling me because she was holding me so tight. She looks at me and gives me a death glare that could burn a thousand acres of forest.

"I don't like you." She says and quickly gets out of my arms.

"Aw, but I like it when you're angry." I say childishly.

"Not another word Chat, not another word." She says walking away from me and storm right into Marinette's bakery.


	20. Chapter 21- Seeking Help

**Authors note:**

 **Thank you to all you wonderful readers! I'm here to answer some of your questions. I'm trying to post every other day, but some times it may be every 3 or 4 days depending on my school schedule. I'm not a hundred % sure of when this story is going to end, but hopefully I will have less than 30 ;P. Thank you guys for the sweet, kind reviews. It brightens my day to see that people are actually reading my work XD. Love you all so much and thanks for all the support you give! 3**

 **~SunnySammy2013**

 **Marinette's POV**

"Are you sure we should just barge in here? We're technically trespassing and stealing their food." Chat says for the umpteenth time. We're upstairs in the kitchen making something to eat because neither of us have really eaten anything beforehand.

"No Chat. It's fine. No one is around, don't you see? And we're here to find refuge while we think of how we're going to save everyone. The least that everyone in Paris can do is lend us their housing. Plus, Marinette won't mind that we take a bit of bread, this is a bakery after all." I say and place a nicely made sandwich in front of him and start making my own.

"Oh yeah. You guys are friends right?" He asks and takes a bite of the sandwich. "This is really good by the way." He says with his mouth full.

"Yeah, something like that. And thanks." I say while spreading honey mustard onto one of the slices of bread. By the time I finish making my sandwich Chat's is all gone.

"Ah, that hit the spot. Hey, Ladybug, if we ever get married, I want you to cook all of our meals." He says. I give him a glare.

"I'm still mad at you for throwing me into that dumpster. So don't be talking marriage unless we're on better terms." I say, although, imagining me and Adrien getting married wasn't a bad thought.

"How many times do I have to say I'm sorry." He groans.

"Well, technically you've only said sorry three times, so you have at least five hundred more to go." I say and take a bite of my food. I hear him mumble some type of profanity about a woman's forgiveness under his breath while he gets up and sits on the living room couch.

"So, the nagging question is: what's next? We can't just stay here forever, though, hehe, I wouldn't mind being alone with you. How are we going to save everyone?" Chat says when I finish my meal.

I dust my hands off from any leftover crumbs on my hands. "You're right, what are we going to do? I don't know any other Miraculous holders, do you?" I ask. In response h e gives me a shake of his head. Ah, I just can't think. Maybe Tikki will know.

"Chat, detransform and ask if Plagg might know anyone who might be able to help us, like, if there are other miraculous holds he knows? I'll ask Tikki the same thing." I say and start heading to my room upstairs.

"Yes ma'am." He says. I'm halfway up the bedroom stairs when I hear Chat shout "Plagg, claws out!" I can see a flash of lime green in my peripheral vision. I turn around and see the Paris model Adrien Agreste. Adrien notices me watching and looks at me. We just stare at each other (How many times have we done this? Like really, my eyes should be bleeding from me not blinking).

"Oh, will you love birds please stop." Adrien's little black, cat-like Kawami says. Adrien and I realize that we've been staring at each other for an awkward amount of time and quickly look away from each other.

"Uh, I'll be upstairs if there is an emergency." I say and point at the bedroom door and give a fake, awkward laugh.

"Yeah." He says and scratches his chin.

"Hey, Ladybug. Do you have any camembert?" I hear Plagg ask. Adrien hisses at Plagg telling him to shut up. Definitely cat-like. I snicker.

"Just ignore him. I'll find something for him." He says. I smile and wave at the both of them and head into my room.

I close the door behind me. I look around my familiar room. The familiar pink colored walls brought me piece of mind, and the atmosphere and comfort it gives me is like a major detox. I head to my work table where Tikki's bed is at.

I call off Tikki, and with a bright flash of pink, I'm back to being normal, ordinary Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Tikki is floating right next to me. Suddenly a rush of exhaustion rushes through my body and I nearly collapse. Tikki floats for a while like normal, but gravity was pulling her down quickly, and with the last of her energy, she was able to fly safely onto her pillow.

"Marinette, I know you need me, but I need a little break. Just give me a few minutes and I'll get back to you." She says. I need to get her something to eat quickly. Already on the floor, I practically crawl to my dresser drawer and grab out the box of Oreos. I grab two out of the package and put the box back. I slowly make my way back to Tikki and give her the cookies, which she quickly ate with great enjoyment. She lays there still, for a good while, like she's asleep, but her eyes are wide open. After about 15 minutes of me waiting for her, I hear the door creep open.

"Ladybug? Are you okay? I haven't heard anything from up here-" Adrien says as he's opening the door. Luckily I was super close to the back side of the door and immediately close it before he could get his head through and see anything, accidentally hitting his head. "Ow." I hear.

"Yes, I'm fine. Tikki just needs some rest before she can do or say anything. I may be up here for a while Adrien, so make yourself comfortable." I say. I hear a sigh from Adrien's side of the door, and then hear his footsteps declining the stairs. I rub my forehead in somewhat irritation. I sit down at a nearby chair and wait for another few minutes. I'm about to fall asleep when I notice Tikki starting to move a little bit.

"Good morning." I hear her say. I look at her as she stretches.

"Oh Tikki. Good you're awake. I was getting a bit worried." I say and pull my chare up to her little bed.

"Oh, I'm sorry. How long were you waiting?" She asks.

"About half an hour." I say and shrug, "but it's fine." I add quickly when Tikki puts on a guilty face.

"Hey, Mar- Oh, should I call you ladybug?" She says with a whisper.

"Oh, haha, yeah. We don't know if anyone's listening." I say, and peek at the door. Surprisingly I hear a scuffle on the other side of the door and something thumping down the stairs. I look at Tikki. I couldn't hold in my laugh. Adrien was spying on us, trying to get extra info about me probably. How cute.

"Oh, um well." Tikki says, laughter in her voice.

"We should keep our voices down." I say

"Yeah." Tikki says. "Anyway, you want to know if there are any other miraculous holders right?" She asks.

"Yup." I say

Tikki thinks for a while then an expression of enlightenment plasters on her face, "Oh, I know exactly where you need to go. And the good thing is, you already know him."

 **Adrien's POV**

After trying to eavesdrop on Ladybug and being caught, I decide to turn on a movie. I look through my options on Marinette's movie shelf next to the TV. A lot of them were child Disney movies (which is cute), but there were a few adult movies. I completely ignore the horror movies. Nope, this whole thing is already a nightmare, I don't want any dark thoughts to creep into my head. After a few minutes of extensive searching, I decide on the move The Dark Night. It's a good movie, and it brought me the good memories of the Mari (also, seeing the movie made me miss her, so I just had to watch it, but I would never say it aloud).

Plagg said not to worry about finding another Miraculous holder because Tikki, Ladybug's Kawami, would know where to go. For the whole time though, he was more focused on finding food more than anything else. I take the Disk out of the case and insert it into the CD player and press play. Ten minutes in, I get interrupted from watching the film when Ladybug runs quickly down the stairs from Marinette's room, obviously having something important to say.

Ladybug starts to say something but stops when she notices what I'm watching. She glances at me and the TV multiple times before settling her eyesight on me and gives me a sly smirk.

"What? I got bored." I justify. Ladybug puts a hand to her mouth to keep her from laughing. "What's so funny?" I ask.

"Oh, nothing. I just like batman movies." She says.

"Yeah, I know. You told me. Care to watch with me? We could snuggle." I say. I scoot over and pat the seat next to me, inviting her to sit down.

"I'm flattered, and although I would accept the invitation on different terms, we have more important things we should be doing right now." She says. "Common, I need Chat Noir. We're heading out."

"What? But we just got here." I complain. She glares at me.

"Don't you dare start. We need to go; the sooner we get to there the better." She says. I sigh.

"Fine, let me get Plagg." I say as I get up from the couch. I turn off the TV and go into the kitchen. I look through all the cabinets for my little ferry friend, but I couldn't find him. I look around the kitchen to see if there was anywhere I haven't checked yet. My eyes settle on the refrigerator. Oh, please don't tell me… I swing the refrigerator door open, and sure enough, he's in there, stuffing his face with cheese.

"Plagg! What are you doing?" I silently hiss at him.

"Enjoying my time here. Sure, your friend Marinette doesn't have Camembert, but she does have somewhat good taste in cheese." He says and stuffs a piece of Swiss cheese in his mouth. I grab him by the tail and place him on the counter.

"Alright, so you've had your snack, let's get going." I say. "Plagg, Claws out!" Like a vacuum, my ring sucks up the complaining Plagg into my ring. There was a bright green flash and I was back to being good old Chat Noir. I look at Ladybug. "Alright, let's go."

"Alright. So, uh, apparently, we're going to need to find another way to get there quickly." She says. She passes me and goes to the door frame. On it were a pair of keys on a hook. She grabs them and tosses them up and down in her hands.

"Why?" I ask, a bit confused at her statement. She walks up to me and starts spinning the keys on her finger.

"Oh, I kind of promised Tikki that I wouldn't use any Ladybug power, like running ultra-fast through the city, unless it was a complete emergency. So that's why we're driving."

My eyes go wide. "You're driving?" Did I hear her right?

"Yup." She says, my face must have read exactly how I felt because she quickly adds,  
"And there is no need to worry. There isn't anyone in the streets that I can hit if worse comes to worse." She says. She turns around before I can say anymore and quickly heads back to the stairs that go to the bakery. I follow pursuit.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I ask hastily while I try to find a better idea for us to get there quickly and safely.

"Yup. Why? Do you not want to come with me?" She asks, and looks at me with an expression that reminds me of a child who's about to do something naughty. When she reaches the bottom of the stairs, she looks around for a bit before deciding where to go next. She turns right and goes through a door that leads into the kitchen.

"Oh no. I'm definitely coming with you." I quickly say. I hear her snicker from her ahead of me. She goes through a side door that I haven't noticed before (with the last few times I've been here) that lead to a side alley way. When I exited the building, I saw a little white and black Mini Cooper. Ladybug stood near the front of the car with a key remote in hand. I hear a click from the car as it unlocked. She giggled as a little burst of excitement and quickly runs to the driver's side of the car.

I run up to the passenger side and hesitantly get in. As Ladybug gets acquainted with the system of the car, I buckle myself in and say a prayer that we won't die. Ladybug puts the keys into the ignition and twists it; the car roars to life.

"Oh, I've always wanted to drive a car." Ladybug says and puts the car into drive. She releases the brake and we start to move forward. A bit startled at this, Ladybug slams on the breaks again, making us jolt forward. Fear and panic raided my body and I look at Ladybug, who's looking at the steering wheel, then looks at me, guilt written all over her face. "Sorry." She says.

I don't know why, but I start laughing super hard. I can hardly breath. Ladybug starts to laugh too. After we calm down a bit I say, "Can I drive."

"Oh, like you'll be so good at it. Sure, give it a shot." She says. We both get out and change seats. Once in the driver's seat, I look at my station. I've gone to professionally go-carting before, and I've driven plenty of golf carts before. Hopefully this will be just as easy. I put on my seatbelt and put the car in drive.

I had a very steady start. In reality, driving isn't very hard at all. It's the same as the other things that I've ever driven. The only difference is that I can go much, much faster. In caution I don't go over 30 mph.

"Okay, so where are we going?" I ask when I feel comfortable with my driving to speak.

"I'll direct you to where to go. Turn right at the next street." She says.

"No, that's not what I meant. Who are we going to?" I ask.

"We're going to the only man who knows both of our identities and made us Ladybug and Chat Noir. His name is Master Fu."


	21. Chapter 22- Meeting Master Fu

**Adrien's POV**

We've been driving around for forever. Ladybug kept telling me to go down streets that ended up being wrong. Because of that and because I wouldn't drive very fast that we drove for about an hour. At some point I tested her sense of direction. My little comment triggered her and it quickly became a very heated argument. It ended with her giving me the silence treatment except for the occasional "turn here" (and although I would never admit it, it ended with her victory).

The house we finally arrive at looks like any other house in the city. It has a few cheap vases with some plants in them and a welcome matt at the front door. Ladybug is at the door quicker than I can blink of an eye, knocking at the front door. I make my way up the stairs. We wait for a few minutes, and there is no answer.

"Uh, ladybug. I don't think he's home." I say. She ignores me and rings the doorbell. I sigh. We wait in silence for another few minutes. Ladybug looks as determined as ever, but I was seriously getting bored. We could be looking for everyone right now, but we're standing at the door of some stranger's house who might not even be here. "Okay, Ladybug. You can stay here if you want, but I'll be in the car if you need me." I say. I'm halfway down the stairs when I hear a click from the front door.

I turn around as the door squeaks open. There, at the door, was a little old Chinese man in a red and white flower printed Hawaiian shirt. He wore a big smile on his face and put his hands behind his back.

"Ladybug. It's good to see you again. How is Tikki doing?" He asks.

"She is doing marvelous." She replies. She gives him a warm smile.

"And, Chat Noir, it seems that you are also doing well. I was wondering if you ever did get better after you got hit by Master Electro." He says.

"Oh, you know, I wasn't really told what happened that night except that I died, and lovely Ladybug here brought me back to life." I say.

"Oh, well, I did bring you back to life, but I also brought you to Master Fu, who so graciously used some sort of Miraculous power to heal your broken rib bones from when I did CPR. I take that since you were not taken by Hawk Moth that you are also a Miraculous holder?" She asks. I'm dumbfounded. One, because I didn't know I broke my ribs, but two because I could not imagine this old man could turn into a crime fighting machine like Ladybug and me.

"Yes, your observations are correct. I am the miraculous holder of the turtle miraculous. I have the ability to heal people and Kawami. My name is Master Fu, it is nice to finally meet you on these, somewhat better terms." He says and extends a hand for me to shake. I hesitate for a second, but I accept it.

"Alright, now that we're acquainted, would you both like to come inside?" He asks. He extends his arm to invite us in.

"Yes please." I say. Master Fu enters back into the house and Ladybug and I follow suite. The interior of the house was much different on the inside than on the outside. He decorated in a Chinese theme. There were some sliding folding room separators with either dragon designs or a spring cherry tree design. There were a few red dressers here and there, each of them having a small wooden vase with a small tree in each (I never did learn what they were called). The floor had a bamboo carpet that lined every inch of the floor. Basically, if you think anything Chinese, it was there.

After following behind a bit I whisper to Ladybug, "Are you sure we can trust him?" I ask.

"Why shouldn't we? He's just like us." She replies.

"Well, it's just that he looks so old." He says. I jump when I hear Master Fu's voice.

"I am not old! I am actually in my prime years. I only just reached turning one hundred eighty-six years old. I have much more to go." He says. My jaw drops.

"You're one hundred eighty-six years old? Are you even human?" I ask.

"Of course I'm human. It's just that miraculous holders can live up to two hundred and sometimes three hundred years old." He says casually. I'm losing my head, but my mouth was super casual about it.

"You hear that ladybug? We're going to be together for centuries." I wiggle my eyebrows up and down. Ladybug scoffs and continues to walk down the hall. He leads us into a more spacious room that takes up the theme of the rest of the house. There was a large gong on the far wall, and right next to it was a dresser with a few cloths poking out from the creeks of the main door. In the very center of the room there was a coffee table with three cups with some warm, steaming liquid in them. On the ground around the table were three mats.

"As you can tell, I was suspecting you." He says. Okay, for what I have seen so far, I can take a guess that he is lying. He probably was, but I can tell he wasn't 100% ready for us. The tea (at least that's what I think it is) is hot, which means that it was just made, which is why it probably took him forever for him to open the door, and the messy closet in the corner was most likely quickly packed with the few things that he found on the floor. The house was very nice, but a few details here and there lead me to believe different than what he's saying. What a queer man.

Master Fu sits on the mat closest to the back wall and invites us to sit on the mats right on the other side of the table. I awkwardly sit down and put my legs into a cris-cross position. I look at how Ladybug and Fu who are both kneeling down, hands on their knees (is that how they sit in china?). I quickly correct myself in a frantic gesture, earning a weird look from Ladybug and Fu. I cough awkwardly.

After waiting for me to get comfortable, Fu passes out the cups. "Here, drink this. I've made it for the both of you." He says. I look at the cup he's given me. The tea looks different. It looks like watered down lemonade. I take a sip. My eyes go wide as the flavor circulates my mouth, stimulating my taste buds. As I swallowed, I felt energy radiates through me.

"This tastes super good. What is this?" I say and take another sip. I watch him look.

"It's my Kawami's waist matter." He says flatly. It's a good thing I already swallowed because I would have spat it right in his face (I kind of wish I had). Ladybug immediately spits the drink back into her cup and hangs her tongue out and starts to wash it thoroughly with the back of her hand. I feel like I'm going to throw up, but I only gag. Suddenly we hear Fu laugh hard. He laughs for a good while as we stare at him confused.

"Oh, you two are too much. Don't worry. I'm only kidding!" He says. I glare daggers into his eyes. So much for a good impression with this guy. He only wanted to play with us. I officially say that I don't like this man.

"Then what is it really?" Ladybug says.

"Oh, it's just a remedy I made up when I was in my eighties." He says. "It will help you both gain energy. Ladybug, I recommend that you drink this often because after you used Flutter Light you lost a lot of energy. I'll teach it to you so you can make it at home." He says and drinks his tea. I look at my drink again, not appetized to drink it.

"So, do you both know each other's identity's yet?" Fu asks. Ladybug and I look at each other. She answers for the both of us.

"Well, I know who Chat is, but I refused to tell him who I am. You see, we're playing a game. I gave him clues and he has to connect the dots." She says. Master Fu smiles.

"Oh, and what would those clues be?" He asks.

"The first one was that I'm best friends with the person who adores me the most," Ladybug says. "then I told him that I work with sugar, that I like batman movies, and that I know him really well outside the suite." She says. Now it's my turn to speak.

"Don't you see how hard she is on me? Those clues are impossible!" I say.

Master Fu scratches his chin, "They make sense to me. In fact, one of her clues completely give her away." He says. I cannot believe that he's siding with her. I fold my arms and look to the side, not wanting to look at either of them.

For the next while Ladybug and Fu talked about how to make the drink and what it did to the body. I got so bored, I was about to go to sleep, but then the subject changed.

"You both are probably wondering how you're going to take down Hawk Moth, am I correct? I'm going to guess that you both didn't come over to just talk about tea." He says.

I finally give him my full attention.

"Yes. Tikki said that you knew how to stop him and get everyone back." Ladybug says.

"Yes, I do, but it won't be easy." He says and fidgets with his cup.

"It doesn't matter what we have to do, just please help us." She says.

"Alright. First of all, you would both need to drink this tea very often." He starts. "For what you need to do, it will take a lot of energy, and Chat, you will need to know how to activate Black Combustion." He says. It takes a moment for me to understand what he just said.

"B-but…" I say, unable to form a word.

"Yes, yes. I know. It is not a pleasant power to have, and it's much worse to use it, but if used properly, it can also help in this situation." He says.

"But won't his power be sapped out after he uses it, like mine did?" Ladybug asks.

"Yes, but don't worry. Once he uses it, the problem will be solved." He says, a little bit darkly.

"Woah, we are not going to kill him are we?" I burst out. Fu realizes what he said, and his eyes go wide.

"Oh, oh no. Of course not. I'm sorry, let me explain better." He says franticly. He clears his throat.

"Ladybug, if you use your Flutter Light, and Chat, if you use Black Combustion at the same time, you guys can destroy a miraculous." He says.

"But, wouldn't that kill the Kawami?" Ladybug asks. Fu ponders on what she said.

"For me to really explain, I would need to get into the whole talk about how all of the miraculous's were made. Long story short, Nooroo, Hawk Moths butterfly Kawami, won't have another miraculous holder for about one century." He says. "This would be the best thing for Nooroo."

"A question that has always bugged me was how Hawk Moth got his Miraculous anyway." Ladybug says. I was going to say that he most likely stole it, but Fu answers first.

"He got it because I gave it to him." Fu says. We all fell into an awkward silence. Fu refused to look at us, and I can see that he was upset.

After a while, I speak up, "Why?" I ask. Fu scoffs.

"Well, believe it or not, he was a good man. He passed the same test I gave both of you. In fact, he had it for about three years." He pauses. "He didn't get to use his power for as much as you two though. He would only use his power to go against criminals. I didn't think I would even need to give anyone Tikki or Plagg because Paris was safe with Dark Dagger, that was his name long ago. About one year ago though, he faced a major adversity. He fell into a great amount of despair and depression. He liked to ask me about miraculous history, so, as a way to help him better, I gave him a gift. I gave him the Miraculous book."


	22. Chapter 23- The Miraculous Book

**Marinette's POV**

"What is the Miraculous book?" I hear Chat ask.

"It's a forbidden book that was given to me from my master about one hundred and forty years ago. It was for my eyes only. I thought that one day, I would make him a Master, like me, that it would be alright for me to share it with him. Sadly, I have greatly misjudged him. After I gave him the book, he read about the Miraculous powers of the Ladybug, and of the cat. He would ask about them occasionally, but I wasn't permitted to tell him unless I formally turned him into the next Master. So I didn't tell him anything, but lead him into other sources. Through his private study, he discovered how certain events happen if you combine the powers of two miraculous's. To his finding, he discovered that the combination, in specific, the Ladybug and the Cat would give him the complete power. In specific, he wanted to go back in time and redo something that has happened." Fu says.

I look at Chat. He's looking at the ground, very distant. He also looks agitated. I poke his arm. He looks at me startled, like he forgot I was there, "Chat, are you okay?" I ask.

Chat looks at his cup, "Yeah, I'm fine, it's just…" He goes back into thought. "Is there other copies of this book?" Chat asks and puts his cup back onto the table.

"No, there is only one book. Why?" He asks.

"Oh, well, I have a book that sounds kind of like what you just described. It has all the information about all of the miraculous holders and stuff." He says.

"Oh, there is only one book, but there are plenty of books about the miraculous holders and their powers. Miraculous holder fans have been around for centuries." Fu says a smile on his face.

"Oh, well, Master Fu, if you know who Hawk Moth is, can't you just tell us?" I ask him.

Fu's expression becomes more serious. "Do you think I would if I could tell you? I am forbidden to reveal anyone's identity. It's kind of like a curse. If I dare try to say a Miraculous holder's real name, then all of the memories of that holder will be lost from my mind. I dare not try it. That's why you must find him out yourselves." Fu says then gets up from his seat, signaling that our meeting was over. I stand up with him, but I don't realize that my leg is asleep (geeze I hate sitting like that). I lose my balance and fall right on top of Chat with an oof.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that." I say, "Oh, it's alright." Chat says, then we would stare into each other's eyes romantically. At least I wish that's how this whole thing went down. My face was super close to his and all, but his face was abnormally white, and his eyes were rolled to the back of his head. I can see he was closing his mouth tight to hold in something, like a scream. He grabs my leg and I look down. I had hit him in the crotch with my knee. I gasp and immediately get up from him.

"Oh my gosh, Chat, I'm so sorry." I say. Chat's hands go to his groin and he muffles a scream into the floor. I know this is bad, but I was trying to hold in a laugh (I know I'm so mean).

After a while, in an awkwardly high voice he replies, "I-it's f-fine. I-ah. Oh that hu- yup. Okay. Just give me a moment for me to stop the pain." He says. I turn to Fu to see if he's still there. Yup he's still here, near the front door. He looks like he's about to explode from laughter though. He was bright red and his hands were cupped around his mouth. I mouth 'can't you help him?' He simply replies with a shake of his head and walks down the hallway. I send an amused glare his way. He has the power to heal but won't do it because it's humorous. Well fine then. (I mean I would probably do that too, but seeing that I'm his partner I can't do that)

"Chat, is there anything I can do?" I ask hesitantly.

"Nope, I'm good." He says then shouts, "Where is the bathroom?"

I hear Fu answer from the other room, "It's out this door then down the hallway. It's on the third door to your right." After receiving his answer, Chat shakily starts crawling away.

 **Adrien's POV**

Oh, it hurts so bad. "Ohh~" I moan in pain. I'm in the bathroom shriveled up on the floor. I'm in so much pain that I detransform. As soon as we separate I hear him laughing at me. He's laughing at me so hard in fact, that he's having trouble breathing. I would slap him right now, but I'm a bit occupied.

As my pride was being challenged, I tried to stand up. My hand grips the sink counter edge and stand up straight. Nope. I immediately sat on the toilet and cross my legs. Plagg laughs even harder. After a few minutes the throbbing dies down and I take a second try at standing up. I succeed, but I don't dare move yet. After knowing that most of the pain has ceased, I walked around the room. After I could move around without flinching, I call Plagg and turn back to Chat Noir.

Plagg laughing reminded me of Master Fu, how he was laughing at me. He could have used his voodoo healing magic to help me out, but no. He just left me in the hands of Ladybug, who could never comprehend the pain.

I decide that I'll snoop around and find more about this man. I poke my head out of the bathroom door and look down the hallway to see if anyone was around. When I see that the coast is clear, I go out of the hallway and close the door quietly behind me. I tiptoe to the room closest to me and creak the door open. It was dark and had a few tarps over different pieces of furniture. Boring. I close the door and go to the one next door. This room was like a science room with different glass jars with multi-colored liquids in them. Pictures of the human body and some generic looking Kawami's were on the walls. This room kind of scared me so I close the door and pretend I didn't see anything.

I creep down the rest of the hallway where there were a pair of double doors. I swing both doors open. My eyes go wide and a huge blush spreads through my face. They weren't doors to another room, it was a closet. It wasn't filled with clothes, oh no. It was filled with Lady Noir stuff. Tee-shirts, mugs, snow-globes, pillows, he had everything. I mean, I know that there are fans, but this is kind of like an obsession. I hear a cough down the hallway.

I jump about 2 feet into the air and quickly shut the door. I look towards the cough and look at Master Fu. I was caught.

"I believe that the way out is this way." He says and points down the other side of the hallway.

"Oh, uh, yeah." I say quickly and scratch the back of my neck. I make my way to the other side of the hallway, but as I pass Fu, he grabs my arms and stops me.

"Please don't tell anyone about this." He says quietly. I release my arm from his grip and raise them up in defense.

"Your secret is safe with me. Everyone has their thing. But, hey, thanks for supporting my campaign." I say and go back into the main room. Ladybug is by the hallway that we came through when we first got here.

"What's so funny?" She asks. I realize that I had a huge smile on my face.

"Oh nothing. I just saw something that pleased my heart." He says. Wow, that sounded stupid. Ladybug is about to say something but Fu interrupts.

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry to rush you both out, you were lovely company, but you both need to go home. Ladybug, I'll see you in two days. Drink as much of that tea as possible." He says to Ladybug, then he turns to me. "And Chat, I will see you tomorrow."

"What? Why tomorrow?" I ask.

"I need to teach you how to activate Black Combustion. You will train with me for the next few days. Be here by ten thirty. If you don't I'll add a few exercises that you won't extremely appreciate." He says, a bit coldly. I don't know why, but I shiver.

"How about me. Sure I've used it before, but I don't know how to control it. The only reason I activated it was because of an emotional outburst." She says. Aww, she did care about me.

"Don't worry. Now that you have done it, it will come naturally. All you will have to say is 'Flutter Light', then extend your hands out with your palms towards the opponent." He says and demonstrates his words for us.

"And it's not that easy for me?" I ask.

"No. You need to activate it first for it to be that easy. For you, you've never used it, and hopefully you never will. You will go through exercises that will imitate the same movements and feelings that Ladybug here has gone through. I must warn you Chat; I will have to break you mentally for this." He says with utmost seriousness. I gulp.

"I'll do anything to get anyone back. I'll be here." I say. I look at ladybug who is looking at me with worry. I give her a confident smile and a wink. Ladybug rolls her eyes at me.

"Very good to hear that. Alright, may I ask for the both of you to leave now? I have a lot of preparation for tomorrow." He says. We nod and make our leave. I get into the car and wait for Ladybug to say her goodbyes. When she finishes she runs back to the car.

As she gets into the car she says, "Alright, we're going back to Marinette's bakery." She says.

"Why? Did you forget something?" I ask.

"No, you're going to go through something very unpleasant. Let's go get a piece of cake or something." She says.

"Oh, like a date?" I ask.

"Call it what you will, but I'm doing this to give you a break before tomorrow." She says.

"Oh boy. Then it's a date." I say. A burst of happiness swells through my body, "And there's no worry. It can't be that bad."

Ladybug's silence made me more worried. Yeah, I could go for a cupcake right about now. I know my way back to the bakery because I unconsciously memorized the roads from when we drove to Fu's house. Without wrong direction I got there in less than 20 minutes. I park the car where Ladybug and I have found it. Since I know where it is now, I won't need to drive, though I had fun driving.

We go inside and Ladybug finds a few cupcakes that looks fresh and gives on to me. After I ate my cupcake I start to feel a little bit tired. I manage to kiss her hand before I run home. That night, I didn't sleep all that well as I thought of the "exercises" that Fu will put me through. I can guess that he doesn't like me, at least he probably didn't until he found me snooping through his personal stuff. I sigh and think about the people of Paris. Yes, there is my determination. To bring everyone back from Hawk Moth's clutches. I wonder what he's planning, I haven't seen any of his puppets. This whole situation feels wrong. I think back at the good ol' days of when it was just Alya, Nino, Mari, and me. I wonder what they're all doing right now.


	23. Chapter 24- Cupcakes

**Marinette's POV**

Two days passed by quickly, though very quietly. I know it's been only 2 days (less than that actually), but it seems like it's been forever. I miss my parents and my friends. I was always on guard for when all the akumas would come back and hunt for us, but it never happened. Are they waiting for us to come to them? Is Hawk Moth hurting everyone? I don't know, but I'm anxious to find out. There were a few times where I would fly through the city to try to find Hawk Moth's Layer, but I could never find it. I've been in my room for the last while sketching my day away. There were tons of crushed up papers on the floor from failed design ideas. I messaged Chat Noir to see when I should come over, but he never answered, which is strange since he always replies right back to me. Poor Chat, he's probably going through He-

I get a buzz on my phone, a message from Chat, (Tikki was able to hook my phone with my Ladybug phone somehow so I don't have to be Ladybug to get his messages somehow) telling me that Fu wants me there in a bit and to bring him one of Marinette's cupcakes in an hour. I quickly message back asking if he was okay, but he doesn't answer. I wonder what he's going through right now. Probably something bad.

I get up from the couch that I was laying on and turn off the movie I was in the middle of watching. Of course I'm going to get him a cupcake, I was going to bring one anyway. I head downstairs into the family kitchen. If I'm going to bring him a cupcake, the least I can do is make a fresh one, especially since the left overs would be 2 days old. I decide on making a normal vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting, a very popular choice between customers. One hour is a perfect amount of time to whip up a dozen.

I get out the flour, backing soda, and salt and mix them together for the dry ingredients then, in another bowl put in warm butter, oil, and sugar. After I mixed the wet ingredients, I beat I put the batter into colorful, flower patterned cupcake tins and put them into the warm oven. I don't have a time for them, so I have to watch them and wait until it's a golden color on the top. The next part is easy. All the frosting is is butter and chocolate. I know it sounds really bad, but it tastes super good. I quickly beat up the frosting and wait for the cupcakes to cook. I still had about 45 minutes until I have to be there, and the cupcakes will probably take another 10 minutes. What to do?

I forgot to tell Tikki that we were leaving soon, so I quickly went up and did that. When I told her that we were leaving soon, all I got as a reply was a mumble about how she wants more sleep. I sigh and head back downstairs to the kitchen to watch the cupcakes. Mmm they look good. Maybe I'll bring one for everyone since it would only be fair. I look at the sink nearby that's full of dirty cups. No plates, just cups. The last two days, I haven't eaten anything because I was more focused on trying to find everyone. I was practically out all day. I even tried to drive the car again because I got tired at one point. It was better than my first attempt, but after I almost ran into a garbage can, I decided that it was for the best that I didn't try that again. The only thing I drunk was the tea Fu said I should drink. I took his advice seriously and I think I drank a gallon of that stuff yesterday. I definitely feel like I have more energy, but now when I think about drinking it, it kind of makes me sick. The lavender in it is tasteless now. Hopefully it was enough.

I glance at the time; I still have half an hour until I had to go. I scan at the cupcakes for the umpteenth time and decide that they are done. I grabbed the oven mitts and took out the steaming cupcakes. I place them on the counter and get out a cooling rack. One by one I put them on the rack. After a minute, I touch the top of one of the cupcake heads. It had the perfect muffin top, and its bounciness exemplifies the feel of the perfect cake. I take the one I touched and broke it half to see if the middle was done. The fresh smell of vanilla encompasses my senses and I fell into heaven. This vanilla cupcake recipe is easily my favorite pastry and the smell of it always brightens my mood.

I pop one half of the cupcake into my mouth and grab the bowl of frosting. I quickly put the frosting into a pipet bag and frost the cupcakes with a smooth swirl top. I run downstairs and grab a pastry box that would fit 12 (now 11) cupcakes. I look at the time again, 15 minutes until I had to be there. I run upstairs and fill the box with all the cupcakes.

"Tikki, it's time to go!" I shout as I arrange the cupcakes to look somewhat presentable. I turn towards the stairs and see Tikki slowly gliding down to me. I get a sense of worry. "Tikki, do you think you can be ladybug right now. If not, I can always message Adrien." I say.

"No Marinette, it's fine. Actually, it's better that we transform because the energy you have will transfer to me. So yes, please let's do this." She says with as much enthusiasm as she could. I nod.

"Tikki spots on." I shout. There was a bright flash and the felling of some sort of leather engulfs my body. When the light dies down, the familiar red and black poke-a-dot patterned suite was on. I feel a sudden burst of energy. Heck, I can probably run a marathon right now and still make it in time. I look at the time again and I have 10 minutes. "Okay. Here we go." I say aloud. I gingerly grab the box and head to a nearby window. I thrash it open and jump out. With my free hand, I grabbed my yo-yo from my hip and fly through the city. It was somewhat difficult since I only one hand, but this new found energy helped me out.

Within 5 minutes, I was at Fu's house (a new record!). I knock on the white front door and wait for someone answer. I hear a click of the door and the door glides open. The opener was Adrien, but he looked much different than how I left him. He had dark bags under his eyes, and he was slouched over, like he was tired. His close were sloppy and his hair was a mess. I was about to gasp at his appearance, but he had the warmest smile on his face that made him look model handsome. Wow, he is so good, he can look like crap and still look like the hottest guy in France, I thought. I return his smile.

"Ladybug, boy am I glad to see you. I've been waiting for you all morning." He says more excitedly than I ever thought he could. I get filled with guilt and felt bad that I wasn't here earlier.

"You have? I'm sorry, I should have come earlier." I say.

"Oh no. You're just fine. I'm just glad you're here." He says quickly, then he eyes the box in my arms, just noticing it. "Oooh, are those what I think they are?" He says, eyeing the box hungrily. I lift the box and reach it out to him.

"Yup. I brought more than enough for you and for Master Fu. I-uh- found them in her kitchen." I lie. Adrien grabs the box slowly and opens the lid. He sniffs the air, enjoying its scent, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. He sighs.

"Oh, that's good. I haven't eaten much yesterday, so this will definitely hit the spot." He says, and I couldn't help than feel even worse for him. What was so bad that caused him to not want to eat. I want to hug him badly, but I don't. Adrien gives me another big smile. "Thanks. Come on in. Fu and I have something to show you." He says and holds the door open and waited until I was inside before he closes the door.

Adrien guides me along the familiar hallways I've been down multiple times, but when we enter into the main room (where we had tea and talked two days ago), my jaw drops. The room was completely transformed from the nice cozy living room from before, into a concrete, workout, training room. The bamboo flooring is gone, and is replaced with smooth concrete, and the table was replaced with a pile of wood. On the walls were pictures of humans and Kawami's with special points on their bodies with a description attached to it. The walls were the same material as the floor, and there were a few targets with black spots in the middle. In the end of the room, there was a large pile of saw dust.

"What did you guys do to this place?" I ask, still taking in my surroundings.

"Not me, Fu. The only thing I did to this place was make that large pile over there." He says. He's opened the box of cupcakes and is in the middle of eating one of them. I hear him moan in pleasure. "Where did you get these? They taste so fresh." He says as he takes another bite.

"Oh, I-uh- found them in some baking tins in, uh, an oven." I say. Wow, I am such a bad liar. I wait for him to say anything, but he only shrugs and finishes off the cupcake. I smile when I see that he's enjoying himself.

"What are you two doing? We've got to go! Hurry, hurry. Come here." We hear from Fu. I look around, confused of where his voice came from. Adrien coughs from across the room and I turn to his direction. He was standing next to a staircase that lead into what I'm going to guess is the basement, but the thing is, I never noticed it before. I walk up to Adrien and look into the darkness below. I felt some sort of uneasiness. I look at Adrien and he gives me a grin before he casually walks down the stairs. After hesitating for a bit, I follow suite.

The stairs went deep underground, and for a bit, I was engulfed in darkness. I extend my hand to the wall and walk a bit more carefully and slowly. When I reached the plateau of the main floor, I abandoned the wall and wandered. Where did everyone go? I hear someone talking a bit away from me.

"Oh my. I'm sorry." I hear from the same direction of the whisper, and suddenly the lights get turned on. I have to shield my eyes from the blinding ceiling lights. As my eyes adjusted to the new light, I saw that the room downstairs was like upstairs except there were a few vehicles on the far end of the room with different animal patterns on it on platforms. The ones that caught my eye were the ones up in front, in specific, a ladybug bike. Just imagine a bike from Tron, and that's what it looks like, but with a red and black mix in with it. You would think that a ladybug bike would look girly and stuff, but nope, this bike was awesome. Next to it was another bike. It wasn't like mine at all. It was pure black and it looked like something from 2350. It looks so much more high tech, but my bike still looked cooler.

I looked back towards Adrien and Master Fu. I almost burst out laughing when I see Fu because he was wearing a strange pair of goggles over his eyes that make his eyes look like it took up half of his face. "Please forgive me. Chat- oh, er- Adrien and I were working on looking in the dark. I can see perfectly fine in these so I forgot that the lights were off." Fu explains. I nod my head in understanding.

Fu takes off his weird glasses and gives me an old, crinkly smile. "It's good that you came so early. It's about time you both went out to save everyone. Ladybug, have you been drinking my formula?" He asks.

"Yup" I say, "I think I drank about a gallon of that stuff yesterday for good measure." Fu laughs.

"Oh boy, I'm going to guess that you are full of energy right now. Just three to four cups would have been enough." He says and sets down his equipment on a nearby stone table. I blush. Yeah, I feel great right now. I'm actually still up for that marathon.

"Yeah, I drank a few of those cups and I feel great." Adrien says. I look at his figure again and fight myself whether or not I should say _you don't look great_. I decided to keep my mouth shut. "Oh, ladybug. I wanted to show you what I can do!" He says and runs over to a pile of wood. He grabs a plank and hands it over to Fu. Fu chuckles and puts it on the same table as where he put his weird goggles. Adrien shouts "Plagg, claws out!"

I hear a scream of profanity from Adrien's little black Kawami from a few boxes in the corner. As he gets sucked up, he drops a little piece of cheese that he was in the middle of eating. Poor thing. There was a flash of green and Chat Noir stood before me.

I hear him giggle viciously. "Get ready for this!" He says. He gets the wood from Fu and holds it with one hand. "Claw Dust." He says, both casually and a bit dark. At first, I don't see anything, but as I look closer, I see that a black, liquid-like substance is seeping through his fingers. The liquid turned into lines and they quickly encircled the lumber piece with a square design and a few hieroglyphics here and there. As soon as the whole piece was completely covered in the black lines, the color washed away and the whole thing decomposed into a pile of dust.

A/N

Hello Fanfiction family! Alright, I want to change the name Flutter Light for Ladybug's power. I got the name from my sister, but I don't 100% like it. Do you guys have a possible better name? Also, how do you guys feel about this new type of writing style? This is my first fanfic so I'm trying out something different. I accept criticism with open arms! If you anything wrong with my writing or if I should add/change anything, please tell me in the little box below. Thank you to everyone for the awesome reviews! Love you guys!

P.S. Sorry this chapter took so long to write. I've been studying for semester exams so I didn't have much time to write this.


	24. Chapter 25- Lets go!

**Adrien's POV**

I look at Ladybug with so much excitement. I've probably used Claw Dust 100 times, and it never gets boring. I don't know why, but watching the black lines consume the piece of wood in square like patterns was so satisfying. I focus again the wooden block. It was now completely covered in black, almost looking two dimensional. I slightly squeeze the block and with the slight pressure from my fingers, the black color washed out of the block and it imploded into a pile of saw dust. I look back at Ladybug, but am disappointed when I see that she doesn't have an astounded, enthusiastic face that I was hoping she would. I go to the pile of saw dust in the corner and sadly dump my handful of dust into the pile.

Fu must have noticed her expression, so he starts to explain what just happened.

"Claw Dust, as you can tell, is much like his Cataclysm, but instead of it decomposing it, Claw Dust will grind the object he touches to dust, nothing will be left of whatever he touches." At this, I look at Ladybug and watch her shiver. I look away from her. 'Is there something wrong with it?' I wondered. "And much like Cataclysm," Fu continues, "he can only do it once a transformation, but he will detransform much faster." He says. As if on point, my ring beeps twice. I look at Fu and he gives me a nod. I get up and head into a nearby room that was made just for me and Plagg. The room stenches of the smell of camembert because the room is filled with the stuff in huge boxes. There was a bed (in case me or him want to take a quick nap), a bathroom, and a few things for me to do as Plagg gets his energy back.

I only get one more beep from my ring before I transform back to Adrien. I sigh and sit down, suddenly tired. The lack of energy felt weird since all of yesterday, I drank a ton of that tea stuff. I've kind of gotten sick of it since I was forced to drink it all the time yesterday. It's become bitter to my taste, but I still drank it.

My attention goes to Plagg. I watch as he dives into one of the cheese boxes and stuffs his face full of camembert cheese. After a minute of obsessive eating, Plagg grabbed a wheel of cheese and flies to the bed to relax on one of the black pillows laying near the foot end of the bed.

I'm a bit disgusted at his eating habit, but right now, I really don't care. I'm more enticed into what Ladybug and Fu were talking about on the other side of the door. From where I was standing, I could only hear them mumble to each other inaudibly. I sit down near the door and push my ear to the door to hear better.

"There is nothing to worry about." I hear Fu say. "I made him swear not to use it ever without my consent first."

"Not even on Hawk Moth?" I hear Ladybug ask. I feel surprised. Why would Ladybug ask that? Of course I would never use it on Hawk Moth. Sure, I don't like him, but using Claw Dust on him is just inhumane. Right now, I'm only using it as a party trick.

"Of course not." Fu says, copying my thoughts. "It's way dangerous. The reason I taught it to him is because it's a lot like how he presents Black Combustion."

"Oh. Okay." There was a pause. "Does that mean I also have other powers too?" I hear her ask. Fu chuckles.

"Yes. Yes, you do, but that's for another time." I hear him say. I was about to mumble that she didn't want more power. Just to learn Claw Dust, I had to go through something called a gate of pain. There are four of them, and to open each one, you have to experience a different type of pain. Cataclysm was a power that came with the suite, and with the suite came physical pain from fighting akumas. To get Claw Dust, I had to go through mental pain. It reminded me of my worst memories, and my worst fears. In order to open Black Combustion, I'll need to experience emotional pain, which is somewhat close to mental pain, well that's what Fu told me. He hoped that with some practice with my dark memories roaming through my head, and gaining Claw Dust, it would help trigger my emotional pain.

Thinking back on what happened yesterday made my head spin. I force myself to stop thinking about it and focus on the now fat looking cat sitting on the pillow fast asleep on the other side of the room. I was anxious to get back out there with my lady, but I need to let him rest. Yesterday, I pushed him way too hard because I was trying to perfect Claw Dust. He was so tired that as soon as I detransformed, he went straight to bed without asking for any cheese.

Somehow, I made it to one of the crates of cheese and lean my back on it. My stomach grumbles. Boy, I want more of those delicious cupcakes. They tasted freshly made, and they had the perfect texture. No wonder they were considered the best bakery in Paris. My mind wondered through the good memories of us at the bakery, and eventually I find myself dozing to sleep.

…

…

I hear a rapping of the door and Marinette's voice call through the door, and I immediately wake up. Marinette? Was that really her?

"Chat. You've been in there for an hour. Are you all right?" I shake my head. No, it was ladybug who called me. Not Marinette. I shake my head; I must have been dreaming. Before I could answer, Ladybug pushes open the door, and instinctively, I jump behind a box of cheese I was previously laying on to hide myself.

"My lady! Have you never heard of knocking? I'm not transformed." I shout. I hear Ladybug hummed amusingly.

"I already know your identity silly kitty." She says. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. She gives me a wink and I smirk.

"Well still, you should have knocked first. I could have been naked in here." I say. She gives me a playful side glare, a small blush on her cheeks, but doesn't say anything. "Oh, does that mean that you want to see me?" I say. Ladybug's blush deepens, but rolls her eyes.

"Adrien, hurry and turn to Chat. We have to go find everyone today." She says and sassily walks out of the room, hips swinging as if to seduce me. Oh, how I want her to be mine so bad. For some reason, I start to think about Mari. In a way I feel like I'm cheating on Ladybug. I've only loved Ladybug for years, but somehow Mari took a piece of my heart too. Is it wrong to have two love lives? One outside and one with the suite? Yes. My heart should only be with one person, and that's Ladybug. I have to get Marinette out of my head.

I scratch the back of my neck tiredly. I walk up to the peacefully sleeping Plagg. I shake him until he wakes up.

"No, at least ten more minutes." He says, pawing his eyes.

"Sorry. I know you're tired, but we have a city to save." I say, and before Plagg can say anything I shout "Plagg, claws out!" There was a flash and I was in my black suite again. I'm still extremely tired, but I feel a bit better. I walk over to the door and open it. I look around and spot my lady and Master Fu by the cool looking bikes. I take a step, but freeze when I hear something creak from under my foot. I lift up my foot and see a wooden tray with a green cup with the healing tea in it. I reach down and grab it. With three chugs of the drink, it was gone and I feel power surge through my body.

My tiredness washes from my body as the energy tickles my body. I make my way to Ladybug and Fu who are talking about the bikes. I've already heard him explain the bikes to me so I quickly get bored. I look at my bike. It's probably the most breathtaking (and probably most expensive) bike on the planet. It was completely covered in black with a leather seat and black rubber handles. There was an open tinted glass dome which was made to go over me when I get into the bike.

On the side, there were some smooth black panels, where I'm going to guess where the weapons were. The engine was hidden with dark silver platting. The bike was made for me to ride in the dark without anyone noticing me. The silver platting are actually mufflers so I could ride in the shadows and not be noticed. I walk to the front where the head light is. Near the bottom of the head light, there was something that looked like a dark green paw print. Where the two handles meet, right above the headlight, there was a 3D sculpture of a snarling black leopard head. It had one silver and one green eye. It was so captivating, and I couldn't stop looking at it.

I was about to touch the head when I hear Fu give a hard cough. I turn around to see Fu look irritatingly at me. I give a guilty smile. Fu told me before not to touch the bike multiple times, but I just can't help myself.

"As I was saying, as soon as you touch the bikes," he continues to glare at me, "your energy will be absorbed into the bike. The bikes will only work if you are transformed. As soon as you touch it, they will be in ignition. No one can use each bike but you. You won't be given another one, so please, take care of them. You will be riding to Toulouse. That's where Hawk Moth is at right now." He says. Ladybug interrupts him.

"Isn't that like, six to seven hours away?" She asks, "and why would he be there?"

Fu gives a weak smile, "Based on what I heard, with his akuma's, he was able to take over that area. He, right now, is at the Place du Capitole. He's also waiting for you both to show up, so be on your guard." He says.

"How do you know this?" I ask. Fu doesn't say anything for a while.

"Because I am Master and Great Guardian, I can speak to each Kawami telepathically, though, I tend not to because it takes up too much of my energy."

I look to ladybug and she gives me a shrug. I shake my head.

"Will you come and help us?" Ladybug asks. Fu sighs.

"I'm sorry, I can't. I may only be 186, but I do not have the same energy as I used to. You will have to do this on your own." He says. There was a moment of silence, then all of a sudden I see Wayzz zoom quickly to Fu.

"Master, it's getting bad. They need to leave now." He says.

"Yes, yes. Alright. Chat, I do hope that you are ready, and Ladybug, I hope your luck will be with us." He reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out two bags with pills in them.

"Here, take these with you. You will have to drive continuously to Toulouse, don't stop. Such a long trip will take up most of your energy. You will not know how much until you get off of them, so as soon as you get off, take three of them, and if you have to detransform or if you run out of energy, take two of the pills. They are made with the same things as the tea, though you will need a minute to completely get all of your energy back." He says and hands us each a bag.

"We are counting on you two." Wayzz says.

"Don't worry, this will be a piece of cake." I say.

"Don't be so sure of yourself Chat." Ladybug says. "It's not all going to be cupcakes and biscuits." I can tell she was trying to lighten the mood with her pun, but it fell flat.

"Yeah." I say.

"Here are your helmets. There are communication devices in each so you can talk to each other." Fu says and hands me a black helmet and ladybug a dark red helmet.

"Oh, this is going to be fun." I say as I pull the helmets onto my head. I clip the chin strap and it fits me perfectly. I hear Ladybug's voice through some earphones in the helmet.

"I don't know Chat. I've never really liked long road trips."

"But you're with me my lady, so expect some great entertainment." I say. Ladybug chuckles.

"You guys can get on your bikes now." Fu says. Ladybug and I walk to the bikes and I jump on my bike excitedly. As soon as my suite touched the seat of the bike, it roared to life. I get so giddy I want to scream, but I hold in my excitement. Ladybug does the same.

"Chat and Ladybug, push the blue button on the right handlebar to completely muffle your engines." I can barely hear Fu say through my helmet. We comply and the room becomes mostly silent. Fu gives us a smile and pulls out a remote. He presses a button and an entire side of one of the walls is pulled upward, like a garage door, to reveal the city streets. The sun has almost set and is starting to get really dark. The scene kind of reminded me of batman.

"Are you ready Chat?" I hear ladybug ask.

"As ever. How about you? Do you even know how to ride?" I ask.

"More than you know." She says and lays down into her bike. I chuckle and grab the dome above me and completely enclose myself. I've never road a motorcycle before, but for some reason, this feels completely natural. I twist the right handle and I move forward. I can't contain my excitement any longer.

"Whoop whoop! Let's go!" I shout. Fu chuckles and moves out of the way. Before I can move, Ladybug is already taking the lead. I hear Ladybug laugh excitedly and I grin. I wave at Fu and quickly follow her and speed into the night.

-A/N-

Hey guys I am so sorry that it took so long for me to make this chapter! I was studying for exams, so I didn't have a lot of time to write last week, then over this weekend, I was doing a youth event called youth conference, and I couldn't bring any electronics. I'll do my best to write more often. Tell me how I did on this chapter. I'm finally trying to end this. I'll try to make the chapters longer. Hope you guys are having a great day!


	25. Chapter 26- The Trip

Marinette's POV

We don't make a noise as we speed down the Highways and Freeways of France. Night replaces day and the street lights are the only things that keep us from driving in complete darkness. No cars were to be seen except for the many that were on the side of the road. Chat and I talked about it, and we decided to believe that they calmly parked there when Hawk Moth took control instead of thinking that they crashed.

I'm glad we're alone on the road thought. I felt free on this bike, and I owned the road. As seen with the attempt of me driving my mom's car, I can't drive anything to save my life, but strangely, this bike felt familiar. I knew what all the buttons did and I can drive this bike like a pro. I even did a few tricks when I got extremely bored. Chat must be feeling the same thing because he keeps trying to show off to impress me as well.

Since I had to lie down to properly maneuver my bike and I couldn't really see past the handles, my helmet was connected to the front of the bike, that apparently has cameras, to show me what I couldn't see. In front of me is a screen with a map on it, showing me the way to Toulouse. It says that we're an hour out and that we've been driving for four hours, which is great since we thought we would be driving for six.

"Hey ladybug." Chat practically shouts. We've been driving for quite a while in silence, so his sudden voice echoing through my skull made me nearly fall off my bike in surprise.

After collecting myself I answer "What Chat? Do you want to play another road game or something?" I ask a bit annoyingly. Throughout the ride, we would play some road trip games out of boredom, like the alphabet game -where we would try to find letters on exit signs and buildings- and name that toon- where we would have to name the song that we were humming. It got quite fun and probably passed an hour of the time, and we couldn't think of anything else to play and the games got boring after a few hundred rounds.

He chuckles "No, no. Although I love playing games with you, I think we should stop somewhere soon. My map here sais we're about an hour away. Seeing that Toulouse will probably be overrun by Hawk Moths minions, I think we should find a hotel or something that's close to Toulouse, but not too close. Fu said that we will be completely out of energy when we get off our bikes, so don't you think that we should stop and rest before we go off and try and save the day?"

"Hey, those are our friends you're calling minions you know." I say. He had a point though. I've been thinking about Fu's warning for a while now. I don't feel like I've lost any energy, in fact I feel great, but Fu said that we wouldn't feel the effects until we get off our bikes. I hear Chat snigger. "Fine, yes. I guess you're right. Where do you think we should go?" I ask.

"Don't worry my lady, I've already found the perfect place." He says. So that's what he was doing through our silence. Chat is currently riding in front of me, so I sent him a glare of daggers into his back.

"We're not sharing a room." I say, a small smirk forming on my cheeks.

"Man, why are you always trying to push me away my lady? We both know that we'll end up together in the end anyway!" He says. I roll my eyes. I like the thought of me and Adrien, but I continue to play my part in his game.

"Chat."

"Alright, alright. Fine. We're not sharing. We are going to be neighbors though, at least." He says.

"That's alright with me." I say. I think of the memory of me and him snuggling at his house that one night. How I want that to happen again. Honestly, if I was honest, I really wanted to say yes, and earlier, I really did want to tell him my identity, but for some reason, a little tiny voice in my head told me otherwise (I bet it was Tikki).

He keeps us on the highway for about a half hour before leading us on an exit. We enter into a nice looking town and weave through traffic of empty cars. This small city had tall, old looking building that were refurbished. It was obvious that life was here recently. There were flower stands and open coffee shops. Sadly, there were a few animals with leashes sitting or clawing at doors trying to get back inside their homes. I wanted to stop and help each one, but I remembered Fu's warning of me completely losing my energy and I realize that if this mission goes quickly, they'll be taken care of soon.

After lacing through traffic, Chat's voice comes through my helmet speakers.

"Ladybug, be prepared to stop. We're almost there."

Soon after he said that, we turn one more street and my breath is taken away. A huge hotel stood in front of me, it took on the theme of the town, but it looked brand new. The walls were tan, and some red awnings above doors and windows that went really well with the color. There were a few marble columns in the front by the door and there was golden lining around each window. Right at the front of the building, there were 5 gold stars above the hotel name that read _Le Grand Agreste Suite_.

After allowing me to marvel at the building for a bit, he then swerved in front of me to get my attention.

"Common Ladybug, follow me. We need to park these things." He says.

"Sorry." I say and follow him to one side streets next to the hotel. There were two empty parking spots and we take them up with their bikes. I sit up for the first time in hours and my whole spine cracks. I stretch my aching muscles and take off my helmet.

I buckle the helmet straps to the handle bar and grab the small bag of pills Fu gave me. He said as soon as I get off the bike, I will feel all my energy go away. I look at Chat who has also taken off his helmet and he gives me a nod of encouragement. I swing my right leg over the seat and jump off the bike. As soon as my body lost contact from the bike, the silent humming of the bike became stopped. I land on the frozen, concert sidewalk, feeling perfectly fine. I start to doubt momentarily Fu's warning, maybe he was just playing with us?

Suddenly, my knees collapse from under me and I see stars in my vision. The world around me spins and I see the ground speed towards me. By instinct, I try to raise my arms up to catch me, but I couldn't move my arms at all. I feel my head hit concrete and everything goes black.

…

…

I don't know how long I've been out, but Adrien's voice knocks me back to reality. I open my eyes to see Chat Noir's face super close to mine. I'm startled, so I try to push him away, but all I can do is move my fingers. I moan escapes my lips as I remember that all my energy is now gone.

"Careful my lady. You just were unconscious. Here, take these." He says and presents three of those small pills Fu gave us. He opens my mouth and puts the three in. I can't even move enough to open my own mouth? How was Chat even able to move to take the pills? He leans my head back and starts caressing my neck with the back of his hand, a movement that made me automatically swallow the pills. I try to tell him thank you and ask questions, but all that could escape me was a wheeze of air.

"Don't try to talk. Just lie here until the pill takes effect. Blink once if you understand." I comply. He sighs and sits down right next to my head, seemingly exhausted. I can feel my cheeks glow from the biting cold from the air. It's gotten warmer the last two days, so all the snow melted, but tonight it dropped back to probably around 20 degrees. I glance at Chat as he tosses another pill into his mouth. He swallows and exhalations. He glances down and catches me looking up at him. He chuckles.

"You know, you're completely immobile. I could do anything to you and you couldn't do anything about it." He says and gives me a mischievous smirk. I glance at him questionably and I grunt. Panic runs through my body as he climbs on top of me and his fingers brush my sides. My eyes go wide, and all I wanted to do was scream at him and punch him in the face. Suddenly, his gentle touch turned into fluttering fingers that went up and down my sides. Was he tickling me?

Once I realize what he's doing, my mouth betrays me and lets out a heavy laugh. Curses, tickling is my only other weakness to doll eyes. He heard my laugh and intensified to tickling. At this point I'm howling with laughter, and I am very angry. I yell at him to stop, but he doesn't. I focus all of my possible energy into my right arm, and slowly but surely, I get my hand back. With all I could muster, I bring my hand up and give him a hardy slap on the face. I didn't know how hard I would hit, but it was hard enough to hear an ear busting clap. As Chat was in a bit of a daze, focus away from me, I fell the pills start to take effect. I gain movement from my legs and I scoot out from under him. I rap my arms around my sides and give him a glare.

"Don't ever do that again." I quietly shout at him. Chat starts to laugh and puts a hand to his cheek.

"I probably won't get an opportunity like that again. I had to take advantage." He says and shrugs. I turn away from him as he continues to snicker. Once I was confident enough in my legs and I could move, I stood up and left him to find a way in.

I went to the front, but it was locked. It seemed that the guard had a special key card to let guest in. Determined, I make my way to the back door, but I'm faced with the same problem. I look up and down each side of the building to see if perhaps there was an open window, but nope, they're all closed, and they don't look openable. Chat is still sitting of the sidewalk watching me circle the building.

I think there might be an entrance on the roof, but I don't have enough energy to swing myself up there, and there are no tall enough buildings nearby for be to just jump to the roof. I'm considering my options, maybe I can break a window and get in?

"You know I have the pin to get in?" Chat says out of the blue. I stop in tracks and look down at him. He shrugs and I glare at him.

"You knew-"

"Yup." He interrupts. "And if you couldn't tell by the giant logo on the front of the building, my dad owns this place." He gives me a wink and tiredly stands up, yawns, then stretches. He scratches his head and motions me to follow him.

"Since when did your dad start making a hotel line?" I ask, following him.

"Since about ten years ago. We currently have five Le Grand Agreste Suite's found throughout Europe." He says. I open my mouth so speak, but close it. I had known his dad owned it from the sign, but it didn't occur to me that he may know how to get in. I mentally face palm myself.

He takes me to the front of building to the sliding doors. Instead of going to the left side, where the key card scanner is, he goes to the right and faces a full body length, carpet flag. He moves it aside and reveals a small key pad. He glances at me and gives me a cheeky wink. I look away and fold my arms, embarrassed that I didn't see it. I hear the beeping of him putting in the number code, then I hear a ringing noise that sounds like a door bell, then an automated feminine voices, through an invisible speaker, _"Hello Adrien Agreste. Welcome, please go to the lobby to await assistance."_ He gives a sigh and walks up to me.

"May I?" He says and extends his elbow out, signaling that he wanted to escort me.I smile, role my eyes and take his arm. As we got close to the sliding door, there was a ding and the doors slid open. What I saw inside was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. The primary colors of the room where scarlet red and gold. The main piece was the sitting room where there were expensive looking velvet couches and gold engraved wooden coffee tables. The floor had a pretty, comfortable red and gold carpet. There were white, Greek-like columns in the corners of the room and there were paintings along the wall with end tables in front of them with the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen. At the end of the room was a large stairway that lead to the upper floors.

He leads me to the back of the front desk to find a room. The wall behind the desk was covered in keys, not key cards like many hotels do these days, but actual golden and brass keys. Chat does something on the main computer and pulls up a profile to show us the building layout. He surfs through the sight to find the perfect rooms for us. As I wait, I walk around the main lobby, discovering the flowers and looking at the paintings around the room. I make one official loop of the room when Chat calls me over. He hands me a key that reads _room 452_ and grabs another key from off the wall.

"Right this way my lady. I will guide you to your room." He says. He escorts me again up the main stairs, but since my room is on the fourth floor, and because both Chat and I were basically breathless when we reached the top of the first stairway, we decide to take the elevator the rest of the way up. The hallways have a velvet carpet and nice paper wall paper. There were a few end tables with more flowers on them and there were windows at each end of the hall. The doors were painted white with golden knockers on each. The handles were fancy decorated, gold lever handles with a key hole under it. We reach room 452 and I test out the lock. It unlocks and I'm about to go in before Chat stops me.

"My lady, I'll be in a nearby room. If you need anything, just yell my name. There's no noise, so I should be able to hear you easily." He says. I thank him and slide into my room.

The room was casual, but gorgeous. It didn't match the same theme as the rest of the building with the red and gold, but it had green and blue hues that decorated every object in the room. Right next to the front door was a door that was locked from the other side. In the main living room, there was a massive sliding window that lead to the porch. There was also a couch and a TV set with a nice stereo. There was a swinging door that led to a full kitchen with nice china dishes on the shelves. Connected to the main, room area was a door that lead to the master bedroom, which also had a television, and a few drawers to put belongings in. In the very corner of the room is an aqua colored king-sized bed with a nice leaf green curtains that I can close if I wanted to be more private. On the far side of the room is a large bathroom with a Jacuzzi Tub, and a nice, open shower. There were also two sinks with two separate circle mirrors.

I make my way to bed, and lie down. I call off Tikki and she flutters down to end of the bed exhausted. I feel so bad for her, having to use so much energy so often. I scuffle through my bag and grabbed out a little plastic box with smeared frosting on its sides from the cupcake that was inside of it. I open it and place it next to Tikki so she can eat it then go back to my backpack and grab the bag a pills that Fu gave me. I contemplate if I should take one or not, but decide it would be better if I took one in the morning rather than tonight because the energy might keep me up.

I set the bag onto the bedside table right next to the bed and go to the bathroom for a well needed shower. The water was nice and refreshing to my tired, weary body. They provided high quality soaps and hair appliances, so I feel brand new when I get out. I realize that I didn't bring cloths for me to wear, it didn't occur to me earlier that I would be sleeping, or even staying anywhere for that matter, so I had no pajamas. So it came to the option that I could sleep naked, or rummage through another open room to find something. Many people left their doors open when they exited the building to follow Hawk Moth, so that was convenient, but I didn't want to risk the chance that I could run into Chat in the Hallway, not only revealing him my identity, but showing up only in a towel. That would be awkward for a first impression don't you think?

I make up my mind that I would sleep naked, not like anyone will come in here anyway, and get more ready for bed. This place is really fancy, so they had cheap, plastic toothbrushes by the sink, and a mini, travel sized toothpaste tube for me to use. I finish getting ready for bed, and shut down the nice hotel room. I head to the bed, and just because I have never been in a bed with curtains, I shut them. I like the secrecy and privacy that it gave me and it also blocked out the light from the street lamps from the city. I say goodnight to Tikki, who gives me a small moan in response, and close my eyes. Almost instantly, I fall asleep.

-A/N-

Hey gang! Sorry this chapter took so long for me to post. To make up for everything, I made this chapter extra long. I'm sorry that this story hasn't really been super romantic and stuff like many people probably wanted it to, and I'm sorry that this story is so long. I promise that this story will end soon! The chapters will be longer, and I'll try to add more romance to them. It will take longer for me to write each chapter though. I hope that you are all having a great day! Until next time!

~Sam


	26. Chapter 27- Just You and Me

Adrien's POV

I was midway asleep when her screams rattled my scull. I'm half asleep, so I don't know exactly what's going on. Was it real, or just my imagination? I look at Plagg for closure, but he looked as shaken as I was.

"Did you hear that?" Plagg asks. I nod my head and quickly get out of bed. Yesterday, I sneakily got the room right next to hers with a connecting door in between. I was going to show her tomorrow, but right now is more important. I grab the keys on a head table and quickly and unsteadily rummage through each key on the key chain until I got the key to the connecting rooms. I was in there in a blink of an eye.

"My lady, are you alright?" I yell. I look around and the room in search for an invader, for one of Hawk Moth's akuma's but none were there. I panic a little when I don't here Ladybug's voice for a moment,

"C-Chat? Wait, don't come in!" She says. I follow her voice instinctively. I exit the hallway and stand in the doorway to the main bedroom and look around. There was a king sized bed there that looked just like mine, but the bed curtains were drawn.

"My Lady?" I whisper.

"Chat! I said don't come in here! I'm detransformed!" She says, "Tikki spot's on!" I see a flash of pink, and a feminine figured shadow brush across the curtains, and I can't help but blush. I technically just ran in here, she could have been naked or something and I would have been in some deep trouble. I hear her sigh and she forcefully opens the curtain nearest to me. "Have you ever heard of knocking?" She says, "I could have been…" She stops as she gets an eyeful of me. Even in the dark I can tell she's blushing, "…Um, Adrien." She mutters.

I look down at my person. I'm in a white tee-shirt and a pair of blue and white striped boxers. Honestly, in other circumstances I would have been embarrassed, but right now, I just didn't care. All my exhaustion fell on me like a bolder and I nearly collapse on the floor.

"Chat?" I hear Ladybug mutter, but my mind was already gone. I get suddenly dizzy and fight to stay up, a fight I lost. I almost make it to her bed when my legs give out under me, and I fade into darkness.

…

…

I hear a voice, but I can't make out what it's saying. Just a jumble of words, but the voice was familiar. It was warm and soothing. It was motherly like, and I can feel weak under her sweet tone. I depict note changes of a song that I vaguely recognize. I know it's a lullaby. I want to cry when I feel my mother next to me. She's singing to me, after about two long years of her being gone, she's finally here, singing to me.

I felt her gentle fingers brush my brow, brushing my hair. My body tingled from her touch. I want her to continue forever, (like a cat, I know), but she suddenly stops. I'm about to open my eyes, but I don't when I feel the slight pressure of a kiss on my temple. It was motherly, but this kiss was not the familiar touch of my mother, it was new and had even more love in it. I dare to move just a bit, to adjust my head, and the person over me wavered away. I risked a peak, and I see the familiar spots of a ladybug. My mind flutters at the thought of her kissing me, but I'm still too tired to do anything. I manage to smile, and I think I mutter _ladybug_ when I flow back into my dreams.

…

…

The brightness of day gleams through the sliding window, aching my eyes to open. I shut them tighter in hopes that I might find more sleep, but sleep never comes. I open them weakly and remember that I'm not home anymore. I look over next to me, but there was no one there, only an overturned sheet. I realize that I didn't sleep alone last night, but I don't think it ended up the same way as it did with Marinette that one night. My heart flutters at the memory. I shake my head. I have to stop thinking about Marinette and focus on trying to woo Ladybug.

I sit up with shaky arms and open all the curtains. I look around and take in the room. The blue and green hews worked perfect together as it decorated almost every piece of furniture in the room. Although the room looked dashing, it was the smell of food that kept my attention. Eggs? Pancakes? Mm, I can feel my mouth water. I leave the bed and head to the bathroom to freshen up a bit.

I turn on the sink and let the cold water turn warm to wash my face. I splash my face with the water and grab a nearby hand towel and dry my face off. I finish drying my face and hang the towel back up. Ladybug has the bag of pills on the counter for me to have. There were about 5 left, so I only take one. I pop the pill in my mouth collect a handful of water in my hand to drink it down. I slurp up the water and the pill and sigh. I look at the mirror and gaze at my reflection. I'm abnormally white and my hair is a complete rats nest from my sleep. I'm too tired to fix it and I don't think that ladybug will mind. I contemplate whether I should get Plagg or not, but I decide not to. He knows I have some camembert in my bag in my room, so he'll be fine. I look at my reflection one more time and see that color is coming back into my skin.

My stomach rumbles reminding me of the goal I have set this morning. Food. I walk towards the kitchen to see if I can get a few partials, but midway, I find a fully set table with all the food I could ever want for breakfast. Before I sit at the table, I hear some music coming from the kitchen. I withstand my hunger and follow the noise to find and thank the cook for this wonderful meal she put out.

I stand at the kitchen doorway unnoticed and watch ladybug who's cleaning the kitchen. She's trying to sing the chorus of the English song and is dancing along with the rhythm. Some might think it creepy for how long I watched her, she was so entertaining to watch, and she was so cute. Me remembering that she might have kissed me last night sends chills down my spine.

"You know it's every man's dream to have a girl friend who can dance and cook." I say. She practically jumps to the ceiling when I speak. It takes me all I could muster not to burst out laughing.

"A-A-Adrien!" She turns around, and embarrassed fear echoes off her face. "How long have you've been watching me?" She asks.

"Long enough." I chuckle. "Did you make this?" I ask and point at the table.

She scratches her elbow, "Yeah." She mutters. She takes a full glance at me and sighs. "You know, it would be decent for you to at least try to look nice for breakfast." She says.

"What's wrong with how I dress?" I ask. She looks me up and down and I follow her gaze. I'm not wearing any pants! I'm just standing there with just a pair of boxers in front of my crush. In fact, I think she saw me like this last night too. As fast as I could possible, I run out of the kitchen and into my room next door. I find my dark jeans that I wore yesterday and put them on. Plagg sees me running around and laughs.

"Did you and ladybug sleep together last night?" He asks. I look disgustingly at him, a bit flustered at his question.

"N-no! I mean yes, but not like that!" I justify.

"Haha, reminds me of another time. Do you remember?" He states.

"Yes, yes I remember. But this is different. I fell unconscious."

"Uh, huh. Right, sure. The screaming last night? What happened?" He asks. I see that he found my little stash of cheese for him from my bag as he pops a chunk of it into his mouth.

"I, uh, actually don't know. I'll go ask her." I say and at connecting door I hear Plagg call out to me.

"Don't you two love birds have too much fun without me!" He says. I roll my eyes and walk back into the dining room where Ladybug is already waiting for me.

"Better?" I ask. She turns around and looks me up and down.

"Much. Come and eat. I was thinking that since we will be saving the world today that we deserve a nice meal. I had to run to the store real fast to get the stuff. Don't worry, I brought money with me and paid for everything." She says. I smile and take a seat next in the seat just beside her.

"Thank you. What time did you get up to make this?" I asked.

"Well, I didn't sleep very much after when you barged into my room. When I got you safely to the bed, I tried to sleep for a bit, but I couldn't, so around six this morning, I started the day. About you barging in, why did you? I could have been n…" She was about to say naked, but she stopped herself.

"Um, well, I came in because I heard you screaming." I said.

"Screaming? I don't remember screaming." She says. "Are you sure it was me?"

"Most positive. My protective cat senses are never wrong. You were definitely screaming." I say. She looks at the food, clearly confused.

"I might have had a nightmare, but I don't remember though." We sit in silence for a while, but my stomach grumbles signaling to me again that I had to eat.

"Well, we shouldn't let this food cool anymore. Let's eat." I say and grab for breakfast. Throughout breakfast we make small talk and enjoy the meal that Ladybug made with upmost pleasure. I haven't eaten food like this for a long time. Sure, eggs I somewhat eat often but coffee and Croissants are what I tend to usually have, so this is a rare pleasure. We finish breakfast (not a scrap of food left, mind you) and I help her clean up breakfast. I check the time on the oven and it says 10:30. In order for us to infiltrate the Place du Capitole, we decided that we'll have to attack in the dark. That's how we'll have an advantage, though, that's probably what Hawk Moth wants us to do, and just because of that, we'll have to be extra sneaky.

Another flaw of that plan is that we have a ton of time on our hands now. When we completely cleaned the room leaving no trace that we were ever there, we decided to walk around the city and see what's around. We only had about five pills each left over, so we don't dare ride our bikes, especially since we still have about two hours of riding that awaits us tonight.

We visited a zoo, but we didn't -couldn't- stay for long because Ladybug kept feeling so bad for the animals since there is no one to feed them. I would keep reassuring her that they'll be fine, especially since we'll save them all by tonight, but she wouldn't listen. I eventually got her away, but that was because I promised that we could visit this zoo when we save everyone.

We eventually got bored walking around the small city, so we decided to watch a movie. There is a movie theater nearby, and in both of our luck, I know how to run a video projector. We pick a movie and make our way inside. We pay for some old, somewhat stale popcorn (it was 7€, but since it wasn't 100% fresh, we paid them 5€) and went in. She sat down and got our food situated while I went to the back and started the movie. When I got it underway, I ran down and sat next to ladybug.

Midway through the movie, (it was an action comedy) I decide to make a bold move. I try out that I'm-going-to-stretch-them-put-my-arm-around-you maneuver, and it actually worked. She let me do it and actually leaned into me. I want to scream to the heavens in happiness, but I keep my cool. I. Cant. Mess. This. Up. We stay that way through the whole movie and enjoy our shared out-of-date popcorn. When the movie was over and we made it outside, It's finally starting to get somewhat darker.

Ladybug checks her yo-yo phone for the time and says it's almost five and that it'll be getting dark very soon. We're both hungry, and the popcorn was not filling whatsoever, so we decide to find a something eat. We stop by a nearby grocery store, and with the rest of the money Ladybug and I had, we were able to buy some cheese (not camembert), precooked ham slices, and some bread. I wanted to buy some fish, but the smell to ladybug was revolting, so we got simple ham sandwich meat. Although it was plain, we still enjoyed it. It was 5:34 when we started heading back to the hotel where we left our bikes.

I thought we would make it back in time to watch the sun set, and I started talking about it with Ladybug, but by the time we got to the hotel the sun was already hidden behind the horizon. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't planning to move on her while we watched the sun set, how romantic don't you think? Today has gone amazingly well, and I felt confident in myself to make such bold moves, but sadly, I guess it wasn't meant to be.

We make it to our bike when the first street lights start turning on. We make sure we have all the supplies we might need (double checking for the pills) and board the bikes, making a silent hum. I unclip my helmet from my bike handles and slide it on. I'm clipping the chin strap when I hear Ladybug talk through my helmet speakers.

"Are you ready Chat?" Ladybug asks. I look around the abandoned city. So peaceful and quiet. Honestly, living like this, just me and Ladybug, wouldn't be so bad. I've enjoyed how we didn't really have an agenda for the day. I envy those with too much time on their hands. I take in what might be my last bit of freedom and take a deep breath.

"Yup, let's go."

-A/N-

Hey gang! Sorry this one took a while and isn't terribly long. For some reason, this chapter was just kind of hard to make. I tried to make this one more of a Ladynoir chapter because the next few will be more action. What do you guys think? Like it or nah? Message what you guys think about this chapter in the little box below. What do you guys think will happen? See you guys latter ;)

~Sam


	27. Chapter 3- Adrien's House

-A/N-

Sorry all, this is really chapter three. I was doing something on this chapter, and then my brother took my computer and kind of deleted it. So, this is not chapter 28, it's chapter 3. Sorry again!

I'm just at the front gate of Adrien's house. I know I've been here a few times before, as ladybug, but everything still seems really new to me. I've just noticed how big his house is. The big golden gate is intimidating me. I've been standing here for at least five minutes. 'Common, all you have to do is ring to doorbell' I internally slap myself.

Shakely I pressed the call in button. After a few seconds a camera shot out of the wall and focused on me. "Hello, what do you need?" A feminine voice asks through the speaker.

"A-ah yeah. I-I'm Marinette. I'm Adrien's partner for a history project we have to do." I say while scratching the back of my neck.

"Okay, one moment." The voice says. The camera goes back into the wall. A few minutes later I hear a click from the gates and it slowly opens. I look in to see Adrien's really big and fancy house. My legs feel numb; I want to go in but I can't move.

I take a deep breath and force myself to move forward. When I get to the front door, I get greeted by a very well dressed woman. "Hello. You're the friend Adrien has been expecting right? Marinette?" She asks. I nod my head. "Okay, right this way." I follow her through the house, up a grand staircase, and down a hallway to a pair of double doors. "This is Adrien's room. He should be just through these doors."

"Oh. Th-thank you." I stutter. Adrien's room? It's one thing between working with my crush at their house, but now, I'm doing it alone in his room. His room! Oh gosh. I watch the woman as she heads down the hallway.

I stare at the door handles and reach for them, but suddenly the handles start to twich. I panic a little bit and put my hand back down. The door opens and Adrien is on the other side. His hair is wet and he has a towel around his neck. He must have been in the shower. I blush a little bit when I saw him.

"Oh Marinette. You're here! Good. I was just about to go out and wait for you." He says and gives me a smile. And cue the twister of words.

"W-what? Y-you were. I-I'm n-not that late am I?" I ask and franticly grab out my phone. Yeah, like I thought, its 4:57 pm. I'm actually early.

"N-no. Not at all. I just thought of meeting you outside and let you in instead of Nathalie" He says.

"Oh." I utter. I blush even more than before. I probably look like a read balloon. I hear Adrien chuckle.

"Care to come in?" He says and presents the way to his room. I hesitantly walk by him and look around. Adrien closes the door behind me and walks over to a couch and coffee table in the center of his room. I follow him, but I don't sit down.

"Make yourself at home." He says and points down at a seat in front of him. I go over to the seat and start pulling out all of the supplies for the project and lay them on the coffee table.

We start working on the project. About 30 minutes in we stop to take a break.

"Wow, you know a lot about this stuff." Adrien says.

"Yeah. Alya and I have been researching information on this for weeks. We really hoped that we would be in the same group. It would have made this process much faster." I say, and for the first time I don't stutter. I'm finally getting comfortable around him.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I need some fresh air." He gets up and heads to his balcony. I follow close behind. The sun is finally setting, and with Adrien in the picture, it just makes the scene way more handsome.

"Ah." He moans as he stretches his arms. "This is the stuff."

"Yeah." I say.

"So, tell me about yourself. I have been in the same class with you for months, but I know nothing about you." He says. I start blushing again.

"W-what do you want to know?" I stutter. Darn it, just when I thought I was over that.

"Let's start simple. What's your favorite color?"

"Pink. How about you?" I ask, my slight blush getting deeper.

"Oh, well, its blue. Sky blue." He puts on a small smile. "Okay, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

"I-I want to be a fashion designer."

"Oh yeah. I remember. I've seen your sketch book. You're really good. You also made me that feather hat right?"

"Y-yeah, I did." I say. My fingers find a piece of hair that's fallen out of my pig tails and start playing with it. "How about you? W-what do you want to be when you grow up? I mean, other than modeling?" I ask.

"Hmm, if I do end up not modeling, I would like to become…" He pauses and scratches the back of his neck. "a cook." He says and looks away. "Really? I thought you would like to be a French Ambassador or something."

"N-no. Not really. I'm not that much into politics. I like the look of food and making food so, why not?"

Suddenly, my stomach growls loudly. I grab my stomach and look at him embarrassed. Adrien chuckles.

"Speaking about food, have you had dinner yet?" He asks. I shake my head.

"Here. Come with me." He wings out his arm. I'm confused for a little bit then realize I need to loop my arm through his. I don't say anything as he escorts me on our way down to the dining room. Adrien looks at me and snickers. I'm going to guess that my face is as red as a cherry. We make it into the dining room and I look around with admiration. The room was so wide and spacious. The table in the middle room could fit probably 50 people with room to spare. A picture of a woman, which I guess is Adrien's mom, is on the opposite wall which complements the plain velvet colored walls.

"Wow." Is the only thing that creeps out of my mouth. I hear Adrien next to me give a small laugh. "Right this way m'lady." he says as he guides me to a seat. As soon as he said that I think immediately of Chat. I wonder what he's doing right now? Adrien pulls out a chair and invites me to sit. "I'll be right back." He says as I sit down. He then and races into a double door way into the kitchen.

I can't believe this is actually happening. I'm going to have dinner with Adrien! I wait by myself nervous and excitedly for a few minutes until Adrien returned.

"The food will be out if a few minutes, so let's talk." Adrien says. He sits down and rests his head on his hands. We talk about school and what we want to do during winter break. He also asks me a few questions too.

Suddenly the kitchen doors fly open and two people come out with covered plates in their hands. Once one of the servers place the dish in front of me, they opened the lid and a gush of steam puffs up into my face.

My eyes go wide when I see the dish. It's a chicken on top of some lettuce, with what looks like a weird potato lasagna on the side, all covered in a light colored gravy. It's a full fancy meal that you would find at a five-star restaurant. I can feel myself drooling while looking at it.

"And this is a norm for you?" I ask staring at the food in amazement.

"Yeah. Though it is fancy and tastes good, I'm kind of sick of it." Adrien says with a shrug.

"Why?"

"Well, my dad never lets me eat normal food people have like pizza or hamburgers, because of my strict meal plan I have to follow."

"Meal plan?" I ask.

"Yeah, I'm a model, so my dad forces me to eat healthy." He responds. I feel really bad now. I wouldn't be able to survive if I went through life without the occasional pizzas my dad makes. Sure Adrien lives a good fancy life, but his fame and hot looks come with a price. "It's okay though. I do get to eat food that not everyone gets to try right?" He says, looking at the positive.

There is a long period of silence. "So you've never had pizza before?" I ask.

"Well, I did when I was younger, before I started modeling, like eleven years ago." He says, flustered.

"Well, then we have to fix that now don't we?" I say. "Come to my house on Friday. I'll invite Nino and Alya to come over as well. We can have an awesome pizza party at my place!" I smile at him. Did I really just say that?

"Really? You think so?" He says, suddenly excited. "To be honest, I've never been to a real party. The only one I've ever went to was my own, when the Akumatized version of Nino made people have fun." Oh yeah that's right. I wouldn't even count that as a party, not when everyone was forced to have fun.

I finished eating and we headed back up to Adrien's room. We work on the project for a little bit more. I check my phone, its 8:30.

"It's about time I go." I say.

"Oh okay." He says. "How about we do this again. I'll come over early on Friday and we'll work on it before the party."

"Y-yeah. Sounds good!" I say. I pack up my bag and head to the front door. Before I left, Adrien gave me a quick hug. I return it and start to head home. I eek to myself. Best night of my life!

I'm so thrilled by what just happened that while I was by a dark alley way I didn't notice the dark figure coming out behind me and covering my mouth.


	28. Chapter 28- The Arrival

**Marinette's POV**

The trip to Toulouse was a quiet one. There was a hidden tension between us as we thought of what might have happened to everyone. That piece of the unknown scared us more than knowing we'll have to face Hawk Moth. Although it was a two-hour trip, we talked very little. We entered into and out of towns, and as we got closer to our designation, we continued to keep our guard up.

We hear a beeping come from our bikes, and a feminine voice come through the speakers, _fifteen minutes until arrival_. I look at the map at the front of my bike and there is a pulsating red dot. I take a guess and say that that dot is where Hawk Moth is.

Chat suggested that we stop soon, that we should park just a bit outside of Toulouse just in case we need to make a quick escape and so he won't know that we were in the town, no doubt that some of his spies were everywhere. We come across the welcome sign of Toulouse and we decide that we should park there.

Once completely stopped, I sat up, having the familiar feeling of a sore back from the first time I got off the bike. I take off my helmet and clip it onto the bike handles. I feel a mild discomfort in my arms so I reach for the sky and stretch out my back and yawn. I bend forwards, backwards and to the sides. As I complete each movement, there was a somewhat loud popping sound from my back. I stand up and stretch out my legs. I look over to Chat who is still stretching his back. I laugh to myself when he stretches his back like a cat. His Miraculous fits him so well.

"Do you have your pills?" I ask Chat.

He groans as he finishes stretching, "Yup. Do you?" Chat asks me.

"Yup. Do you think we won't be able to move like last time?"

"No, I don't think so. We were riding for four hours last time." Now that I think about it, I passed out and I couldn't move for quite a while, yet, Chat was able to move.

"Hey Chat, how were you able to move after you dismounted your bike?" Chat chuckles.

"Oh, I took a pill just as you got off of yours. I freaked out when you collapsed and jumped off my bike, only to collapse as well. I was able to stay awake, but I wasn't able to move for a good fifteen minutes."

"Oh. How long was I out?"

"For about twenty minutes or so. I was going to see if a kiss would wake up my princess, but you moved before I could try."

I look at him with confusion, "Were you really going to… what am I saying? Of course you were going to." I wanted to blush, but I refrained from it. "Let's just take the pills and see what happens when we get off."

I take out the small bag of pills that have only about 4 pills left. I decide to take two and save two for later. I have no water so I swallow them down whole. I heave a deep breath and step off the bike.

What happened next is basically the same story repeated. I felt fine at first, but then my knees became weak and wobbly and fell down again. I was waiting for when I would fall unconscious, but darkness never came. I was able to catch myself before my face hit the ground. I sigh and sit down, grateful that it hasn't snowed in the past few days. The ground was cold, but dry. I looked over at Chat who hasn't gotten off his bike yet. I nod and wave at him signaling that everything is fine..

I can see his cat ears perk up when he sees I'm fine. He nods and jumps off his bike. He tried to jump to me, but was only able to jump half the distance. His jump was confident but it was weak. I watch in what seemed like slow motion as Chat flew through the air. He landed in a heap, head first. I know it's bad, and he's probably hurt, but I almost laughed aloud. My mouth betrayed me and let out a small chirp, and I cover my mouth. Chat, a few feet from me, looks up and gives a glare.

"What happened Chat? I thought cats were supposed to land on their feet." I tease. He rolls his eyes and gives me a smirk.

"Oh, I'm sorry my lady, it's just that I can't stop falling for you." It's my turn to roll my eyes.

The pills worked much faster than they did yesterday, probably because I had some leftover pills in my system, or it's because my body has become accustomed to it. I was able to pick myself up from the ground in 5 minutes with the help of a tree nearby. I was able to walk again after 10 minutes. Chat was taking a bit longer than me, but about a half hour of determined work, we were able to move our whole body comfortably. As soon as we felt the pills really kick in (it started to feel almost as strong as the drink), we head out.

We didn't know what to expect when we made it to Toulouse, but we were met with silence. We didn't know where we were, nor where the Place du Capitole is. We sneak through the shadows until we made it to a tall building. We climb it swiftly to the top and survey the area.

Toulouse is a pretty large city and we could be from thirty to fifteen minutes away by foot. We were already late, and I don't want to be any more delayed. During the ride I did a little bit of research, and now I know the building inside and out, so knowing which building it is will be a sinch. To our luck, it only took ten seconds to locate the building because it was practically next door. I give a relieved sigh and we descend the building.

We run through the shadows again, making sure to stay away from the street lights. We're so close, and we're still undetected, so we mustn't give off our cover. Not yet at least. I lead us through a few alley ways until we come up to a clear opening. Just across the street was our destination. There was a large, very lit, stone court yard with a very long, beautiful white and gold building at the far side of the yard.

"I know this is where Hawk Moth is, but where is everyone else? This place is _not_ big enough to hold everyone." I hear Chat say behind me. I nod. This domicile may be big, but the whole place was completely surrounded by houses.

"Maybe he put everyone somewhere else and Hawk moth is here?" I say. We stand there for a few minutes, unsure what to do next. My first thoughts turned to doubt. My fear of actually meeting Hawk Moth came to the surface. He made such powerful foes, I wonder how strong he his? We might fail, we might not be able to save everyone, what would happen if we just left? Then the picture of my parents came into mind, and I remembered my fear of seeing my best friends being akumatized again.

As I was going through my thoughts, I don't notice that Chat has passed me by and was walking straight for the center of the courtyard. What snapped me out of my thoughts was when I heard Chat screaming.

"Where are you Hawk Moth! I know you know we're here. Come out and let me squash you like the little bug you are!" He shouts. I gasp.

"Chat! What in the heck has gotten into you?" I say and run up beside him. When I meet him, I smack him in the back of the head. "We were supposed to be stealthy." I whisper yell at him.

"Ouch. Ugh, I know. I'm just missing everyone. I just want to fight him and get this over with." He says and folds his arms. I would have slapped him again, but the ground started to rumble, and there was a loud screeching sound that forced me to cover my ears. Both Chat and I fall to our knees.

As the screeching subsides, I can hear a loud pounding. "Hello?" a pause, "Is this thing working? Testing, one, two." A deep voice sounds throughout the area around us. There was some more pounding and some more screeching. "Is that better?" The voice asks. We hear the inaudible voice of someone in the background. "Yes, yes. I know what I'm doing. Stop…" He pauses and Chat and I share a very confused look. I mouth _what is going on_ and he shrugs. We hear the speaker clear his throat and he speaks again, "Sorry technical difficulties. Where was I? Ah yes."

"Welcome Chat Noir and Ladybug. We have been waiting for you both for quite some time. What took you both so long? Never mind that. Welcome to Toulouse! Isn't this a wonderful place. I thought it was perfect." He says.

"I take it that it's you Hawk Moth?" I shout.

"Haha, why aren't you clever? Yes, it is I, Hawk Moth. Welcome to my new palace." Hawk Moth says.

"What did you do to everyone?" Chat shouts.

"Oh, you mean the citizens? Oh, don't worry their safe, and I wouldn't worry about them coming back. They won't. I gave them a gift that no one can pass up."

"And what would that be?" I ask.

"Paradise. I gave them the chance to live in a world where all their dreams become real. Of course, it would all be in their heads."

"What do you mean?" Chat asks.

"Oh, they're asleep that's all, and as they sleep, they live in a world where everything is perfect just for them."

"So where is everyone?" I ask.

"Oh, there right here," Hawk Moth says. Chat and I look at each other, worried. "but you can't see them right now. But I do bet that you would like to see your friends right? Well, that is something I can arrange."

We feel the ground rumble below our feet, and there was the screech of metal against cobble. We look at the edges of the court yard and see a large object start to rise on all sides. Confused, Chat and I watch the walls rise, but soon realize that they're walls to a dome to keep us in. As fast as we possible could, Chat and I run to where two of the walls meet, hoping so desperately to escape. The walls close with a loud thud, and we were completely trapped.

Panic swept through my being and I looked at Chat who shares the same expression. The ground continues to rumble beneath us and we see the middle of the court yard split open. The floor below us starts to move and we have to start walking to the center in order for us not to collide with the walls. When the floor stopped moving, there was only a 3-foot ledge at the rim of the perimeter and there was a one-hundred-foot chasm below us. There were a few objects below that I couldn't really see, but I can tell what it's supposed to be. A battle arena.

"Oh no." I say.

"Welcome to the akuma games Ladybug and Chat Noir. You will be providing entertainment for me tonight. Just in front of you is a ladder that leads to the ground floor. Please take your time, since you have been already." We hear the microphone hang up and Chat and I look at each other.

"Chat, what do we do?" I ask. He doesn't say anything, he just shrugs and gives me an _I don't know_ expression. I look at him helplessly and peer over the edge. Sure enough there was a ladder. I look around the dome for a last look, for any way to escape. I realize that the only way we're going to do this is if we go down there and do what Hawk Moth says. I heave a sigh and flip myself over the edge, my feet meeting the ladder. I start to descend the ladder when I notice Chat hasn't followed yet.

"Chat, come on. Let's just do this."

"But my lady, I think it's a trap."

"You think? Of course it is. Now come on. You're the one who got us in this mess."

"Me?" He asks, peering over the edge.

"Yeah, because you decided to screech to the moon like a street cat." I say. I hear Chat humph.

"Well, you…uh…darn. I can't think of a comeback. Very well my lady, I will follow you. Just as I would to the ends of the earth." He says. He gives me a wink and starts to climb down too. It takes a while, but we finally make it to the bottom. The ground is gravel-like dirt with some jagged stones here and there. There were some tall structures around as well.

We look around as we walk to the center of the room. I jump ten feet into the air when Hawk Moth's voice echoes into the arena. I turn to see a giant screen of a shadowy figure. There is a bright light coming from behind the figure and the shadow was too dark for me to see his face. All I can hear is his dark, deep voice that could make a child cry.

"Thank you for deciding to join us today. So, you might be wondering what's going on, so let me explain. I want your Miraculous's, but each time I tried to get them, I always failed. Well with this design of a building, it is impossible for you to escape, so me getting your Miraculous's is evident. You see instead of trying to get them the old fashion way, I decided that was boring, so I thought of this. You will both fight through a series of 'levels' where you will be fighting your akumatized friends. If you make it far enough, which is unlikely, I will give you the pleasure of having you witness the true power of Hawk Moth." He laughs evilly. "I'm not going to ask you for your Miraculous's either. There will be no mercy. You will pay for the stress that you've given me for so many years. Let the first round begin!" Hawk Moth says.

From behind us, we hear the sound of stone moving and turn to see a small piece of the wall rise up to introduce a long, dark hallway. I hear the laughter of a feminine voice, coming deep within the tunnel. It was familiar, but I can't place it with a face. All of a sudden, I see two red eyes appear, they stared me down, looking straight through me. I shiver.

"Well, well, well. Isn't it fun to see you again Ladybug? You too Chat. I've been waiting for this for quite some time." She says. An orange figure steps into the light. Her brown hair tied to the side, her puffed up tail swinging side to side, one hand on her hip, and the other was clutching a wooden flute. He stares daggers into me, not very much paying attention to Chat.

"Volpina." I sneer.

"You're going to regret making me wait so long, Ladybug."

-A/N-

Hi all! Hope you guys are having a fantastic week and happy Valentines day? Personally I think we should change the holiday to Singles Awareness Day. Just my opinion. Anyway, this is the final ark of the story, after this, it's done. Maybe in 3-4 chapters? I don't know. Anyway, until next time!

~Sam


	29. Chapter 29- Another battle with Volpina

**Adrien's POV**

Ladybug and Volpina have a long, deadly staring contest, like if I stood between them, I would be cut into little pieces with the hundreds of invisible daggers they were throwing at each other. Our time with Volpina is not a good memory, especially for Ladybug. When I first met her, she lied to me and made me think that she was a Miraculous holder, and that kind of ticked Ladybug off. She was also the only Akuma that was super close into getting Ladybug's Miraculous.

I watch the two girls silently fight, Volpina's tail swishing side to side, and Ladybug who, at some point got out her yo-yo and is now spinning it at her side. I let them go at it for a while, somewhat amused.

"You both know how much I like a cat fight, but can we get this over with?" I say. The look at me with the same stares they were giving each other. Ladybug's look was one I have never seen before. Anger? Determination? Annoyance? It was a mix of all of them. Obviously they still have some buff from before.

"Chat, would it be okay if I take her on first?" Ladybug asks. Before I could reply, Volpina speaks up.

"Oh, don't worry Ladybug. I've been planning this for a while now, and I don't want to hurt my little pet." She winks at me, "Chat, just sit down and watch the show." She brings up her flute and plays a few notes. Suddenly, a large medal cage appeared around me. I roll my eyes. Her illusions have no figure; it'll just disappear when I touch it.

I have a running start and kick the bars. I can feel my whole body vibrate as my foot actually hit medal and right following my foot was my face. There was a large bang and I fall onto the ground. I groan and rub my head.

"Hey! What the heck is this?" I shout.

"Oh, the illusions? Well, Hawk Moth gave me a little bit more power than before. My illusions are real, and you can't escape." She hisses.

"Oh really?" I say. I raise my hand in front of me. "Cataclys-"

"No Chat! If you use that now, you'll just detransform in a few seconds, revealing your identity to Hawk Moth. This is just the first fight. Save it for later and just sit there. I'll take care of this." Volpina bursts out laughing.

"Do you really think that you could defeat me? Did you learn anything from back then?" Ladybug just rolls her eyes.

"Let's just get this over with."

After that, everything was a blur of orange and red. Neither used their weapons at first, just their fists and legs (I never could've guessed how hard two girls could hit each other, like this looked like a deadly prison fight). Ladybug knocked Volpina to the ground with a grunt. She immediately went for the flute, but before Ladybug could get any closer Volpina quickly made a copy of herself by playing small, pleasant toon. Now, two against one, Ladybug was overwhelmed. I have to get out of this cage.

I focus at my task in hand. I look for loos screws, a latch, a bendable bar, nothing. I consider using Cataclysm like before, but like as ladybug said, I would give up my identity. I franticly think. What can I do? Suddenly I remember something that Fu taught me. I mentally kick myself in the face. Of course, I totally forgot about that!

I kneel on the ground and outstretch my hands. "Cat Claw" I say, not too loudly so the girls could hear me. Suddenly, I could feel the claws on my hands grow longer, thicker, sharper, stronger. In about five seconds, my claws have grown twice its size. I remember Fu's words in the back of my head, _Cat Claw is a protective maneuver used to get you out of tight spots. With these, you can dig through almost anything. It doesn't take very much energy at all and you won't detransform but you can only use it once at a time. It lasts only one hour and can be used about every thirty minutes, but be warned, don't use it more than three times or else you will have some… side effects._ The way he said side effects made my skin crawl. I wonder what would happen, but I don't want to find out.

I try my new claws on the bars, but the noise it made when I hit it was loud. Volpina laughed at me while continuing to fight Ladybug. They're both starting to look tired. Better make this quick. I go to the farthest side of the cage, away from the two girls (luckily they moved a bit away) and started to dig the ground. With my claws, I was able to dig the ground like it was dry sand. Even when I hit rock I sliced through it like it was nothing.

I look up the small hole that I've made and see I'm well under five feet below the surface. With that I start going horizontally, and in about 5 minutes I'm positive that I've made it past the bars and start digging upward. When I break the surface I look franticly look around for my lady. I hear someone grunt from up above me and I see that they were on top of huge orange and black pillars that must have appeared while I was digging. There is only one on one again, and neither of them have noticed me yet, so what do I do now?

I get an idea and jump back down into my hole. I calibrate the distance between me and where Volpina's pillar is. I dig as franticly as possible, at some point it got so dark that my night vision kicked in. Within 10 minutes I break a small surface opening to see where I am. To my luck (or ladybugs luck) I was at the base of Volpina's pillar. I jump up and hid into the pillar's shadow. I overhear Volpina above me.

"Ladybug, you cannot even think about getting me. I am way more powerful than you." I hear a thud from Ladybug's pillar and see her get knocked onto the ground painfully. I'm so confused, she looks like she's getting beat up from a ghost. The realization hit me and I get angrier with Volpina. She's totally cheating, keeping me out of the way and calling on an invisible monster to do her dirty work. I sneer. "I want to hear you plead. Plead for Chat Noir like a dog. Call for him. Beg to me for the release of you partner, and I may give you your wish."

"N-never." I hear ladybug growl, then gets hit from another blow from the invisible beast. I can't handle this anymore and I start climbing up the pillar. My first idea was to just cut down the pillar, but my blind rage is taking over. I'm near the top when I over hear Volpina again.

"Oh, fine. I'm just going to turn him into my puppet then." I watch her focus change from ladybug to my little cage. I watch her make it disappear and she gasps looking at the hole at the far end of the cage. "What? Impossible!"

While I still had the element of surprise on my side, I sneak up behind her and grab her flute. She turns around and glares at me. She attacks me, but without her flute she was weak, and I just pushed her out of the way.

"No! Give that back!" She shouts, but she was too late. I crushed the flute in my bare hands, snapping it in half. Suddenly, a huge black and purple butterfly appeared out of the flute (it was the size of my normal hand). I watched as it started to flutter its wings, but I was able to catch it just as it was about to leave. By accident, my claws put holes in the poor bug's wings. It was unable to fly after that. I look at Volpina who's looking in the distance, not looking at anything in particular, fear spread across her face. Suddenly she screams.

She starts to pull at her face and her skin shouting "No! Don't leave me!" over and over again. The scene was horrifying. I then see a figure disconnect from her person, a dark purplish black being, like a shadow with an actual form disconnect from her. It looked as if someone was pulling a string and was taking her spirit away. It seemed painful in a way, and her ear-piercing scream wasn't helping. Her body moved with the shadow as it was being detached, and after a part of it was removed from a certain part of the body, that piece of skin would glow. As soon as the entire being was removed from Volpina, her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapses. She transforms back to Lila, but the weird shadow of Volpina remained. She didn't have a face, nor a solid body, just a basic outline of her shape, making her look 2D. I don't know how I can tell, but I sense that she's staring straight at me. I don't know what to do and I was about to go to it, but it bowed to me before I could move. I could almost not hear it, it could have been mistaken as the wind, but I swear the shadow said thank you, then it disappeared.

I don't realize I'm breathing heavily through this whole presentation. I look down at the lifeless body of Lila, and quickly run up to her. I check for a pulse. I wait for 1,2,3 and heave a sigh when I feel her pulse. I look over to the other pillar towards Ladybug who's sitting down taking a breather, worry on her face. I shout to her that she's alright, but suddenly the pillars start to shake. They were collapsing and we were about 50 feet up. I grab Lila and pounce down and I land with a grunt. I look up and see that Ladybug hasn't followed me and is still sitting on the tower. I realize she can't get up.

I gently put down Lila and as fast as I could I jump up to Ladybug. I scoop her up over my shoulder, and right as the formation started to collapse under my feet, I jumped off and grabbed onto the ladder that was so conveniently close by. I'm heaving heavily, completely out of breath.

"Are you alright Princess?" I ask.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine. Just a little scratched up." She says. I can't see her face, but I can tell that she's smiling, "Thanks Chat. Don't ever let me do something like that without you again." I smile at her words.

"My lady, even if they bound me with chains and thrust me into the ocean, I will always be there to protect you." I say and climb down the stairs. Although I'm pretty sure she didn't want me to hear it, I heard her say under her breath, _I know._

When I reach the bottom, I lay her down and check out her wounds. Nothing too horrible, a few scratches here and there, and I can see what's starting to look like a bruise on the bottom of her chin. Upset at his, my instinct was to lean in and check it out. I lift her chin up and tilt it to get a better look at it. I touch the skin around the bruise, but touch the injury.

"Um, Chat?" Ladybug rumbles. I look at her. I realize her discomfort at our proximity. I was leaning over her body, one of my hands on the wall for balance. Our noses were practically touching and I could feel her breath tickling against my skin. We stare into each other's eyes for a bit, my thumb genially caressing her injury. I make a forbidden move and take a quick glance of her full, pink lips. _I wonder what they must feel like_ I say to myself. I look back at Ladybug. She's so beautiful. I wish I could just take her now, get her out of this place, keep her safe forever. We forget about the world around us, everything becoming a blur. I can feel us getting closer, then the loud, annoying screech entered into the arena, snapping us out of our daze.

"Ah, ah, ah. You two aren't done yet. Here we go ladies and gentlemen, round two." And with that, the speaker shut off. I stand up and look down at Ladybug.

"Can you get up?" I ask and extend my hand.

"Uh, yeah." She says, not making eye contact. She takes my hand and I heave her up. I turn around and shout out to Hawk Moth.

"Hey Hawk Moth! Where is round two?" I shout. I turn around with a childish smile and Ladybug just shakes her head. We hear the wall entrance open again, but in the mist were three people. When they step into the light, I recognize them instantly. Timebreaker, Horrificator and stoneheart. I sigh in relief when I see that they look fine, but realizing that I'll have to fight them tings my heart, especially with the knowledge that whatever happened to Lila might happen to them too.

"Let's just get this done quickly." Timebreaker says.

"No sweat, we'll hit 'em hard." Stoneheart says. Horrificator just roars. I hear ladybug from behind me.

"Chat, there are three of them, so here is what we're going to do. Since I got Timebreaker I will take care of her. You take care of Horrificator, then when they're down, we'll both get Stoneheart." I nod at her plan.

"Be safe, Timebreaker is probably a lot faster." I say.

"And I'm going to guess Horrificator is a lot stronger too."

"What if Stoneheart tries to attack us while we fight? What if they stick together?" I ask.

"Then make them separate, and with Stoneheart, just try to ignore him. He's big and probably the strongest of the three, but he's slow. That's why we'll do it together." She says. I nod.

"Yap, yap, yap. Is that all you guys do? Come on, lets speed this up already." Timebreaker says.

"I have to agree with you." I say, "Hey Ladybug, it's about time we show Hawk Moth what we're really made of."

"Don't go all wild cat on me Chat. We probably have a lot more after this."

I tighten my hands into fist and realize that my claws are still on Cat Claws mode. I probably have only about 15 to 30 minutes left. I don't want to hurt them, but I bet they're really good for blocking.

"Can do m'lady." I say. That's when the trio runs up and the next fight begins.


	30. Chapter 30- Fighting Friends

**Marinette's POV**

We've been fighting for hours upon hours, new foes about every twenty minutes and I dreaded all of it. I was scared heckless when I defeated Timebreaker. I realized that none of the people we were fighting had their original akuma object (like Timbreaker and her pocket watch). I was able to gather from what I've seen from Chat defeating Volpina by breaking her flute, that their akuma objects are now where they drew they're power from. Just like Chat has hypothesized, she was much faster. When I figured out that I needed to break her skates, I figured that the best way to do that is to trip her, so I attacked her in a way that damaged the arena leaving a lot of carnage on the ground. I was able to get Chat to do the same. She didn't notice my plan until it was too late. She tripped over a rock that she didn't step over and luckily was right next to her, so I slipped her skates off as she laid on the ground. (They were a little too easy for them to come off. Haha, I bet Hawk Moth didn't expect me to be able to just slide her skates off at 100 miles an hour).

After I broke her skates and took care of the akuma, I saw and heard the most disturbing thing in the world. My good friend screaming in pain as a dark figure escaped out of her body. I couldn't bear to look at her. When I looked back at her, she was lying on the ground, and the weird shadow thing was standing next to her, staring at me. I was about to hit it, but before I released my yo-yo towards it, it bowed and disappeared. And although I could have thought of it as the wind, I swear I heard it say _thank you._ With this, I also heard the same thing happen to Horrificator. I watched the same thing happen over again, though the shadow took the shape of the akuma figure, not Mylène. After this, we went after Stoneheart, which ended with the same outcome. After Chat and I gently carried them to the side of the arena, and were out of harm's way, we were met with new foes and the cycle continued.

After about 4 rounds, Hawk Moth became awfully quiet, maybe because he didn't think we would make it this far or because he left the microphone to watch us fight, who knows? After defeating what Hawk Moth called "round 6", Chat and I had to take a pill because we were so low on energy. After round 7 however, Chat and I were given a few minutes brake, though Chat and I didn't sit down and try to relax. Our muscles were sore, and we were out of breath. We didn't talk at all because of the images we have seen kept running through our heads. After about thirty minutes or so, we hear Hawk Moth again through the invisible speakers.

"Sorry for the wait. We had some… technical difficulty," he said that with irrigation and frustration. "Anyway, we are here for the final event. For the moment we have all been waiting for! Round 8!" With his last words, the tunnel we have seen open multiple time opens.

"Well, well, well. Glad to see that I made it to the party right when the climax is at hand." Said the Bubbler. "Though, the tone of the scene here is kind of gloomy. Maybe I can tune this charade up a bit."

"Let's not party too hard though. I would like to see that pretty little face that Ladybug has been hiding behind that mask for so long." Lady Wi-Fi slurred. With the sight of them, my heart dropped. I have been preparing myself for this fight, I knew it would happen, but when I see her standing there as my foe once again made me want to sit down and cry. Though I wouldn't just be crying, I would be screaming. I look over to Chat who has on a hard, emotionless face. We're both completely broken, none of us wanted this.

"What's with the unhappy faces? We're about to have so much fun!" The bubbler says cracking his knuckles.

"Nino, I don't want to fight you." Chat steps forward, still no emotion shows.

"Nino? Ha, don't know the name. Sorry, you must have me confused with someone else. The names Bubbler." He says. Chat doesn't say anything. For a while we just stare at each other.

"Oh for pete's sake, let's just get this going." Lady Wi-Fi states. Quicker than I can think, she gets out her phone and forms a play button hover board and glides quickly towards me. I leap out of the way just as a few of her pause attacks shoot fly past my head. I turn to her in surprise and see her type something on her phone. She makes a dramatic gesture as she presses a button the device. Suddenly, a red beam shoots out of her phone and creates two digital creatures. When the pixels disappear, I see a white tiger and a white fox in front of me. At first they were confused and looked around, but as soon as they laid eyes on me they became ferocious.

They attacked me and I couldn't help running away screaming. As they chased me I could hear Lady Wi-Fi laughing hysterically. I get fed up with running around and get out my yo-yo and turn around, now a little bit upset with my love for animals.

"I'm so sorry little guys." I say miserably. With that I yank my yo-yo out and throw it at them. Once my yo-yo made contact with them, that body part turned into blue, blurry pixels and fell from their bodies. It was satisfying and terrifying at the same time, and the animals seem unaffected by it. I swing my yo-yo one more time around and hit them in the chest area, blowing them up into small, pixelated particles.

I turn back to Lady Wi-Fi who's gaping at me. Her face hardens and she puts something else in her phone. I look over to see how Chat's doing. The Bubbler is shooting weird bubbles at him that have a weird colored gas in them, which I'm going to guess is poison. Chat's doing well in dodging the Bubblers attacks, and it looks like his suite has created a gas mask for him.

After look at Chat I focus back at Lady Wi-Fi, who is still typing on her phone. I already figured that her akuma is in her phone, but the problem is, she probably doesn't need Wi-Fi to use it. So, somehow, I need to get close to her, but how?

I got it! Just as the idea popped into my head, a large python, a leopard, and a huge ape appeared in front of me. I shiver at the snake. I hate snakes, especially big ones. I've seen many documentaries about them, and ever since, I hoped that I would never have to go into a forest or jungle.

The snake attacks first and I jump out of the way just as it's jaws were about to snatch me up. It hisses at me and I turn my attention to the ape. Its huge arms were raised and came swinging down to smack me in the head. I dodged it miraculously, but I'm on the ground now. The leopard is right by my head in an instant and is about to swipe me with its clause. I've somewhat forgotten about my yo-yo until now.

I swiftly get it out and bring it up to block the leopards attack. On contact, it's paw disintegrates and it roars in anger. I roll out from under it and swing my yo-yo around again. I make an effort to get the snake and cut it in half, it's whole body shatters to the floor. I go for the limping leopard and cut of another one of it's feet. It roars one more time and collapse to the floor as little, blue cubes. I then go for the ape.

It howls in anger at me for killing off his friends and starts pounding the ground. It cracks the ground and makes the whole arena rumble. I shoot my yo-yo at the ape, but it moves out of the way. He grabs the string and tugs hard, shooting me straight for him. He catches me in his palms and starts to squeeze me. My yo-yo is still attached to my finger and I made a fast effort to wrap it back up. Just as everything starts going black, I touch the familiar touch of my yo-yo and slash the ape's arm off. The hand immediately let's go of me and I land on the ground with a thud.

Gasping for breath, I shakily stand up, watching the ape run around frantically. While it was still confused, I toss the yo-yo at its feet, cutting off its legs. With a loud bag, it falls to the ground in a pile of pixel dust.

Lady Wi-Fi is fuming at this point and I put my plan into action.

"Don't you remember the quote, 'don't send a monkey to do a man's job'? Geeze, are you too weak to come and get me yourself?" I tease. She screams.

"How dare you! You're going to eat those words ladybug!" Still on her hover board, she comes straight for me at top speed. She gets out her phone and starts shooting reverse and pause attacks at me. I start acting cocky.

"Do you really think that these are going to get me?" I yell back at her. She growls at me and starts sending attacks twice the speed. I continue to dodge her attacks, with a little more difficulty. The rubble on the ground didn't help me at all either. As she's attacking, she's quickly getting closer and closer to me. I'm running out of places to jump to, so need to…

I see a rock below me that I didn't notice until now, and I'm most definitely going to trip over it. With that, everything fell into slow motion. I barely feel my foot hit the rock and at first can't comprehend why the ground is coming closer to me. I land on the ground with a thud and turn back to see Lady Wi-Fi smile.

"This is it Ladybug, farewell." She says and blasts a pause button at me. I lift up my arms in defense, my yo-yo somehow still in hand. There was a cackle of the attack hitting my hands and I completely freeze. My body is in a very uncomfortable stance, with my body wrapped into a little ball, my hands up near my face. I can't see exactly where my arms are, but I know that both of my ears are exposed because I hear the Bubbler scream.

His scream for some reason hurt the most. Knowing that one of my good friends are in probably the most pain ever. I so badly want to look over at him to see if he's alright, but right now I'm in a predicament where I can't. I hear Lady Wi-Fi scream.

"Chat! How dare you hurt Bubbler. You're going to regret that, oh yes. Sorry to say ladybug, but your little charade is over." She says. I hear her step up in front of me, and lean over, her hands brush my ears. I tackle her with all I could manage.

I pin her to the ground, hands above her head, me straddling her body. Her expression was a mix of shock, confusion and awe.

"W-What? How? How did you-"

"Oh, I just used a bit of defense that's all. You know, you're a little addicted to your phone. I'm officially saying you're grounded." I say and quickly grab the phone out of her hand. It takes both hands but I manage to break the phone in half.

Right as soon as the phone broke, a large, purple and Black Moth appeared into my hands I poke holes into its wing so it couldn't fly away. It's then that I hear the most horrific scream of all time. It was one that scare ghosts, make a glass wine glass break, make any person cry, made me cry. Under me, she squirmed in pain, she shivered, she cursed, she screamed. Her thrashing made me have to get out of her. All I can do is watch her in pain, unsure if I could do anything. I placed my hands over my mouth to hold my tongue from screaming, tears streaming down my face like a waterfall.

My legs moved on their own and suddenly she was in my arms. I was cradling her like a mother with a hurt child. My tears spill over her body, I sob and hold her tighter every time her body shook. I don't look at her face; I'm too scared to look. Then suddenly, the screaming stops and her body goes limp.

That's when I look down at my best friend. She's back to her old self, that old, same Alya. Her eyes were closed, and she looked as if she were only asleep, which I guess she is. Still, me seeing her like this made me cry harder, with all the pain that has just accrued to her.

I hear a whooshing beside me and see the familiar black and purple shadow. I just stare at it angrily as it stared right back at me. I have to look away back to Alya. My eyes hurt. They're sore from the tears, they feel swollen and puffy. No doubt that my eyes are a disturbing shade of red. I look at Alya's peaceful face and feel a solid, cold hand on my shoulders, and first think it's Chat's but when I went to touch the hand, I just passed through it. I turn to see that the hand belonged to the shadow, who is squatting in front of me. I stare at it mildly confused.

We have a minor staring contest, and as I looked at it, all my anger washed away. Another tear escapes my tear duct and falls down my cheek. The figure's hand raises to my head and holds it. It then leans in and connect foreheads and noses. I hear it whisper _Thank you_ and the figure in front of me disappears.

After sitting there for a bit, I get up with wobbly legs and delicately lift her and set her down with the rest of our friends. That's when Chat comes up to me.

"Geez, you look like a mess." He says. I look at him and see that he's been crying too. He's carrying Nino on his back and places him down right next to Alya. When he stands back up, I can't control myself. I jump up to him and hug him, tightly.

At first he's confused, but he hugs me back, gently and reassuringly. He pulls me back and touches my chin. He bends my head down and plants a kiss on my forehead. He lifts up my head so my eyes will meet his.

"It's okay, we'll get through this. Stay strong." He says. I nod and he pulls me back into another tight hug. It's nice to have him here. So strong and protective. _Why did I ever not want this?_ I ask myself. I would cry some more, but I don't have any tears left. After a few minutes he pulls back, ending our embrace, the cool air filling the space between us.

"Alright Hawk Moth. We beat all of our friends that you've made your minions. Let us and our friends and family out or face us like the coward you are!" Chat yells, full anger in his voice.

Suddenly the tunnel we've seen open and close so many times opens again to reveal one dark, shadowy person standing there.

"Now, now Chat. There is no need to shout. I'm right here." Said a deep, dark, menacing voice. He steps out of the shadows and reveals a tall, skinny, gray suited man. "It's nice to finally meet you two. I believe we haven't truly met each other. My name is Hawk Moth, and I am the last person you will be seeing tonight."

-A/N-

It's the final countdown! The next chapter will be the last and will be the longest yet. I'm going to miss this, it was fun as it lasted . Thank you everyone for the amazing support you've shown me for this, my first fanfic. For this last chapter, let's play a guessing game. Scream in the box below what you think will happen next. Until next time!

Sam


	31. Chapter 31- The Final Battle

**Adrien's POV cont.**

The fight started immediately. A sudden pair of translucent purple and gray colored wings sprang from Hawk Moths back, and with his wings beating as fast as humming bird wings he flew to the sky faster than they eye can see. In his hand, he was carrying a long, black cane. Around his neck was a purple Necklace. For a moment, Hawk Moth griped it tightly. It was supposed to be a hidden movement, but I caught it. I'm going to guess that's his Miraculous.

Right as I made this assumption, he raised his staff towards us. A dark, purple and black ball of light formed at the bottom of the walking stick and a beam of the same darkish-purple light speared towards us. As I moved and dodged the lazar, I notice the damage it left behind. Everything the Laser touched either made the item explode, or left very dark scorch mark. I quickly judge that maybe I shouldn't test my luck and try to see what would happen if I tried to touch it.

I looked up at Hawk Moth for a split moment and take in his expression. He seemed very pleased and entertained. He moved his cane around in a way that reminds me how an owner would play with a cat with a red Laser pointer. How ironic.

With all the damage he was creating, we were quickly running out of places to duck under or climb. I spot a pile of rubble somewhat close to Hawk Moth, that if I were to climb and jump it, I may be able to jump up and attack him. With this awareness, I take excellent care of avoiding that area. Ladybug must have had the same idea as well since she was also doing the same thing.

After a while of just playing around with me (no seriously he was playing with me. While making close calls, Hawk Moth would laugh at me as I would almost fall victim of the purple light), Hawk Moth notices Ladybug run towards him. He didn't notice the rubble under him, but his attention did turn directly to Ladybug. Seizing the opportunity, I run along the outer edges of the arena, keeping my eyes on Hawk Moth, making sure he doesn't realize what I'm up to.

When I reach the closest wall to the pile of rubble, I look up to see that Hawk Moth is extremely high up in the air, still foolishly only paying attention to Ladybug. I call to my cat instincts to help me out. Cats have been known to be able to jump five times their height, so maybe, hopefully, I can achieve that same height difference as well. With a running start I bound towards Hawk Moth. I swiftly climb the pile of rubble and jump as hard as I can.

As I quickly flew towards Hawk Moth, I realize that I've jumped a little too hard. I'm flying straight for him, but if he moves over, even just a bit, I'm going to fly right over his head. I just hope and pray that he doesn't notice me. I extend my hands out in front of me for the grab (note, they are still sharp and hard from my fight with Nino). The distant speedily diminishes between us. 3 feet…2 feet… 1 foot… Hawk Moth saw me too late.

Very quickly Hawk Moth tried to move out of the way, but he wasn't fast enough. I was able to catch one of his wings with my claws before I could fly away. Normally these wings would probably be indestructible, but with these claws, I was able to rip through it with ease. With swift effort, I tear up that wing, leaving 2 large holes and many scratches all over it.

Hawk Moth screeches in rage and bucks me off of his back, which was a bad idea for him. I let go of his wing and fell to the ground with a grunt while Hawk Moth erratically tried to gain control of his wings. He couldn't control himself at all. He flew left, right, up, down, in loops, there was no pattern. As this was going on, he released every verb found in the dictionary of profanity.

Eventually, the one wing I tore up fell off and he fell quickly to the ground, screaming in panic the whole way down. He lands in a humph and lies still for a bit. After a few second however, he slowly gets up, anger burning in his eyes.

"You're going to regret that." I hear him say. Before I can say a pun about bugs and cats, the ground starts to rumble and I am unable to stay standing. Ladybug is at the other side of the arena also kneeling on the ground looking just as panicked as I was. I try to crawl to her, but the rumbling was too much.

I look up and see that we are getting farther away from the upper dome, which means that we're going lower. The rumbling continues and I look to the outer bottom rim of the arena. As we continued down, it revealed large black tunnels much like the one where all of our akumatized friends came out of. When the ground stopped rumbling, signaling that we've reached the bottom, 12 tunnels surrounded us, and each had dozens of large eyes peering at us.

For a few moments I just stared at the tunnels trying to make sense of the situation, then suddenly I hear a loud screech. All at once, the critters that the eyes belonged to came out into the light. Purple-black moths as big as tires came out of the tunnels. They the most spectacular and most horrifying things I have ever seen, and they didn't seem very friendly. I hear Hawk Moth laugh above us.

I look up to see Hawk Moth, perfectly fine, standing on two of his gigantic pets, pointing and laughing at us. Somehow, I managed to subconsciously get to Ladybug. She was standing looking bewildered at all of the large bugs that were quickly surrounding us. We stand back to back, getting ready to fight these things when Hawk Moth sends the word to his insects.

"Let's get this over with. When you finish them, bring me their miraculous." He says. He then thrusts out his hand out and like a heavy wave, all of the moths engulf us into a blizzard of black and purple. I get cuts all along my face and arms, their stingers cutting right through my suite fabric. I hiss in pain as I franticly whack my staff around, occasionally hitting one or two to the ground dead. At this point I believe that there is no need to worry about making them clean and pure again. I just have to get them cleared out from Ladybug, even if that means if I have to kill them.

As I tossed, whacked, and whorled my staff around, I was able to hit about 20 of the pests, but when I asked Ladybug how many she probably got, she said probably 100. She asked me how many I've hit, but I didn't dare answer. Somewhat embarrassed, I increase my efforts 10 fold.

After about a few minutes of this, we were able to get about half of the creatures down. It looked like there were more on the floor than in the air. I glance at each of the tunnels and see if any more were coming out, but there were no more, which was really good. By the time we reached the final three bugs, I'm out of breath and sweating profusely.

Around us was a sea of the dead bugs. We couldn't help stepping on the big furry insects there were so many. Taking the three down, there were only two left and they were the ones that carried Hawk Moth, who was so angry he couldn't speak. His face was red and his eyes looked like they were about to explode out of his head. His grip was so tight around his staff that it looked like he might break it.

"H-HOW D…DARE YOU!" He stuttered with furry. Everything else happened quickly after that. Instead of pointing the end of his staff towards us, he pointed the top end of his staff towards us, a purple crystal ball at the top of it.

"Good bye to filthy pests. I'm done playing with you." He sneers. Then a black light flashes from the staff. A large beam of dark light shoots straight for us and everything goes to slow motion. I lift my arms and close my eyes in an effort to protect myself. I heard the movement of someone moving in front of me. Then the light engulfs us.

I expected it to hurt. I expected to burn. Well, actually I didn't know what to expect, but not feeling anything wasn't right. I opened my eyes and saw everything normal. It was if nothing happened. I start to believe his attack was a bluff until I notice the figure in from of me. Arms extended in front of her, Ladybug has created a pink-translucent protective barrier, like a shield that blocked the attack. There was one odd flaw however, the shield had a hole right in the middle of it. The whole ten started making cracks in the shield and all at once, the whole shield shattered like glass, falling to the ground in sharp pieces, then disappeared all together. Ladybug gasps and her hands go to her side. She stumbles backwards towards me. It was only until then that I realize that I haven't moved at all. She starts to fall backwards but I catch her before she hit the ground. In my arms I look at her up and down and I feel like I'm going to throw up.

Her entire left side of her body was basically red. Not from her suite, but from blood. It was confusing to figure what was actually gore since her suite was mixed and tattered into the mix. It was basically a gore scene from a horror movie. Flesh everywhere, and a lot of red. I believe I see some bone and part of an organ when I couldn't look at it any longer. I lean to the opposite of Ladybug and puke up everything in my system. When I finished, I wipe my face from tears and stomach acid and look down at her. She starts to cough and she spits up blood.

"Chat…" She manages, a drop of blood trickling from her lips.

"Ladybug. Oh my g… oh no. Ladybug." I can't say anything clear my head was swimming, ingesting everything that was happening. I just hold her and cry. As my eyes were closed, I hear the sound of her detransforming and when I opened my eyes, they were too blurry to see anything. I blink the tears away, and immediately regret it. It was no longer Ladybug in my lap, it was Marinette. The same girl that I went skiing with a few weeks ago. The girl that I watched movies with. The girl that let me decorate her Christmas tree before Christmas. _How could I not have seen it before?_ I scream to myself. _I like batman movies_. The first movie we've seen together, Black Knight. _I like sweets._ She's a baker. _I'm best friends with the person who loves me the most._ Alya. I couldn't cope with all this happening at once.

"M-Marinette. No. Y-you can't be. No. You're supposed to be with the others. With your parents. Why are you here of all places? Why are _you_ Ladybug?" I whisper. I look at her whole body up and down. She was in her familiar clothing I've seen her wear countless times. A flower decorated grey shirt, with a brown cardigan, all matched with pink jeans. Quickly however, her grey shirt took on the shade of red.

I placed my hand over her wound, to try to apply pressure. Maybe I can still save her.

I can't save her.

As this thought went through my head, more tears spelt from my eyes.

"So this is how you find out is it?" She whispers. She coughs up more blood. "You cheater, you were supposed to use the clues." I look into her eyes. They had tears in them as well. Her blue bell eyes shone brighter than I have ever seen them. They were glossy and beautiful, and so familiar from both Ladybug and Mari. Again how could I have not seen it? She chuckles. She manages to lift her hand to my face. She brings my face down towards hers. Suddenly she applies pressure to my lips with her own. It was a sweet tender kiss, with a small dose of passion. I felt like the kiss lasted for two seconds before the pressure on my lips left and her whole body collapsed its full weight, lifeless. I stare down at the unmoving Marinette. My mind not accepting this whole event. I just hold her, tightly. This has to be a dream, no a nightmare. Everything just happened too fast. What in the heck just happened?

I go completely blind from the never ending stream of tears coming down my cheeks. I scream. I wail to the heavens not caring that Hawk Moth was there. I scream her name over and over again while rocking her body back and forth. She can't be gone. She can't be gone. She can't be gone.

Suddenly from behind me, I hear the maniacal laughter of our foe. He was laughing hysterically as if he has watched the funniest thing in the world.

His laughter was fuel. Lighter fluid for a small, angry fire within me that grew way out of control. His laughter made me angrier than I have ever been in my life. He laughs while my lady is dead. He laughs because she is dead. He laughs because he killed her.

I can feel my blood boiling. I can feel my anger grow more and more every passing second. Tears have stopped falling from my eyes, though my eyes were still blurry not from tears, but from pure anger. Unconsciously, I find that I've stood up, carrying Marinette. I carry her to the side of the arena and set her down with everyone else. Once I placed her down gently and stood back up to face Hawk Moth. There were only two words that repeated in my mind. _Black Combustion._

 **Marinette's POV**

I'm standing alone in a room. Everything is black, everything is still. It was warm however, and comforting. I felt so tired, I haven't felt this relaxed in so long. Life has been so stressful lately. All I have to do is close my eyes and I can relax. So easy.

Suddenly in front of me, a large, bright, white window appeared and Alya was inside it.

"Don't give up Marinette. Please don't give up. Don't you see that we need you?" She says.

Another screen appeared next to her. It was of Nino.

"Mari. You've always been there. You're so strong. I know you can totally keep going." He says.

Then all around me, large windows of people showed up. A picture of each and every person I've ever met. My parents, my classmates, my friends. I looked around at each of them. They were all saying things to me. Giving me pieces of encouragement. Then suddenly they all speak in unison.

"We can't go on without you." With that, all of the screens disappear. All except one. It was a mirror. It was me, but not me at the same time. The other Marinette was moving on its own. I watch as she moved about and then Tikki showed up beside her. Tikki and the other Marinette touched hands and with a flash, Ladybug stood before me, smiling. The mirror faded away. No longer alone, I stare at Ladybug. She walked towards me and we stare at each other. Suddenly, she gives me a hug. I stand there for a moment, somewhat confused, but I hug her back. It was as if I've just met a friend I haven't seen in a long time. A tear slides down my cheek. She pulls away from me and wipes the tear away.

"Marinette, you've done so well. You've worked so hard. You really do deserve to rest." She says.

"Am I dead?" I ask her. She gives me a mother like grin but it fades away quickly.

"No, not exactly. You're not dead, but you are dying. I know you feel that you may want to relax or sleep, but I'm afraid you can't. At least, not just yet. Your friends need you. In specific, Adrien, er, Chat Noir needs you. He's about to make a grave mistake. You need to be there. You have to save _him_. You need to save Hawk Moth. By saving Hawk Moth, you save us all. Please Ladybug. We all need you."

"But isn't Hawk Moth the reason we are all in this mess? Wouldn't it be better for me not to save him? Let him get what he deserves for after all this time?" I ask. She shakes her head.

"I know he's hurt you. He's hurt a lot of people, but if you can't save the person who needs saving the most, what kind of hero would you be?" she goes silent to let that sink in. "Listen, everything is going to be okay. After this, you can rest." There was some rumbling around us and Ladybug looks around somewhat panicked. "We're running out of time. Your left side should be healed by now. All you have to do is wake up."

"Wait. How am I healed. I took a shot that went straight through me. You said I was dying" I say.

"Oh, well, I kind of lied. Ladybug is the power of life. In a way, it has some of the same healing power as the Turtle Miraculous. You cannot die as long as you're ladybug. At least, not from wounds. Alright, enough questions. You need to get up. You need to GET UP!"

With that everything goes black and I go back to my body. My eyes are heavy and my side is very soar. I feel my side, expecting it to be sticky with blood, but I felt nothing. I then sense the atmosphere. It wasn't comforting whatsoever. It felt dark, and evil, like death. I struggle to get my eyes open and when I do, I see Chat Noir standing at the middle of the floor, though, I could barely recognize him. What I saw was terrifying. There was wild thrashing tactical like smoke thrashing around him wildly. It was dark and menacing. There was so much power radiating off of him. I knew just by looking at it, that anything that dared touch it would face a fate that was worse than death. Chat Noir looked much different too. He was completely black and his body shape took after a weird ware cat. Not even his golden hair was able to be seen.

On the opposite side of the arena was a cowering Hawk Moth. He must also be feeling the same fear I am. He was a bit torn up and he didn't have his two moths under him anymore. In fact, there weren't any moths on the ground at all. Just piles of purple dust. I remember back to the time when Chat showed me how he could turn wood into dust. I then take the idea out of my head and try not to think that he did the same to the poor bugs.

"This is it Hawk Moth. Is this what you wanted?" Chat growls. His voice was deep, hoarse and angry. "I'm sorry if this isn't. But what did you expect?" He says. He then raises one of his hands. The smoke around him soared upwards and formed into a solid though misty black hand with sharp claws. Chat Noir then points towards Hawk Moth, signaling the hand to grab him. The hand swiftly obeyed. Hawk Moth tried to run away, but it was futile. The hand grabbed him tightly and floated back to Chat Noir. Chat said something to him, but I couldn't hear him, but what I could hear were the screams from Hawk Moth. I remember what Ladybug said in my dream.

 _If you can't save the person who needs saving the most, what kind of hero would you be?_ I then realize what I have to do. I look swiftly around for Tikki. Panic sweeps through me when I can't spot her anywhere.

"Marinette are you okay?" Asked my little Kawami. Tikki was huddled in my jacket pocket, with tears in her eyes.

"Oh Tikki. I'm so sorry I worried you so much."

"It's okay. It looks like my message got through to you." She sighs, "you got be a bit scared there." She squeaks.

"That was you?" I ask. She nods.

"I take it that you need me?"

"Uh, Yeah. And we need to hurry." With that, I transformed into Ladybug once more. It's when I see Hawk Moth land on the ground when I activate Flutter Light.

 **Adrien's POV**

"Farewell Hawk Moth. Apologies to Marinette while you're out." I say. Hawk Moth is just less than a foot away from of me, so close I can feel his quivering breath on my face. My large, black, smoke claw tightened its grip around him. At this moment, I felt anything but normal. My hands and arms looked and felt very different. They were black and furry, and I think I even have a weird snout now, but what did that matter. I felt powerful. I reach my clawed hand towards Hawk Moth and gently press against his chest. Black lines then started to form from the tips of my claws and started wrapping Hawk Moths body, just like the wood at Master Fu's house, only the lines were much larger. He lets out a blood curdling scream. I became very pleased with this and took it as an invitation to dig into his skin more. The screaming continues as my Black Combustion torchers his miserable body. I was disgusted by what I was doing, but it made me so happy at the same time. More, I wanted more.

I blinked. What the heck am I doing? I'm torturing this man and I'm enjoying it? What is wrong with me. I immediately release my grip of him and he collapses to the ground. I've just killed a man. I'm a hero, yet I killed him, blind with rage. I know he's not dead yet, but he'll be dead soon.

Suddenly, from behind me, I feel a very large amount of power. It was familiar in some way, though, I don't know what it was exactly. I turned around to see, but had to shield my eyes from the blinding light radiating off of an object on the side of the arena. My mind swims at the impossibility of it. There was only one time where I've ever felt this power. I've only felt and seen this kind of power one time, from…Ladybug. A beautiful figure, red and god-like stood where I placed Marinette before. A long, red, queen-like dress draped over her. She wore a golden headpiece with a red jewel in the center, and her hair was draped to a side of her chest. She starts to walks towards me, her aurora radiating life and bliss. As she passed the moths that I've killed during my murder spree, they all turned back into white normal sized moths. I watched her walk up to me, beautiful, radiating, alive.

Her aurora easily penetrates my dark smoky one, and when she reaches me, she looks at me, sadness written on all over her face. I look at myself really for the first time. I'm a black monster. I don't even have a human figure anymore. More like a cat's. I was so confused. I wanted to say something to her, but before I can say anything, she touches my temple. Her touch was comforting and loving. Peace and calmness engulfed my body and I could feel my body start to change back to normal. I close my eyes and let the process endure. When she took her hand from my head, I looked at myself and saw my real hands and my original suite. My black atmosphere was gone too- only Ladybug's was left. I look back up at her, but she is no longer looking at me, but at Hawk Moth on the ground.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know what I was doing." I say. She ignores me and walks to Hawk Moth. She kneels down beside him and flips him over to reveal his chest. His chest was completely black, with the surrounding skin colored dark purple or an unhealthy yellow. She takes her hand and places her palm on Hawk Moth's chest where I dug my nails into. There was a minor flash of pink and similar lines that look like when I did Black Combustion started appearing out of her hands and started engulfing his body, only her lines were pink. Eventually his whole body was taken over by the pink light. Her light aurora around us died down and Ladybug's dress disappeared, leaving the same, normal Ladybug suite I've always known her to wear. The pink cocoon around Hawk Moth shattered into nothing and we see laying down was a the white haired, stern faced, fashion designer Gabriel Agreste.

I couldn't move. I just stared at his body on the ground. The whole thing settled in. I've almost killed my father. I almost killed my only family. More tears wanted to escape my eyes, but I wouldn't let them. I've cried too much tonight, and I don't want to give even one more. He shudders and gasps. His eyes flutter open and he quickly sits up, panicked.

"Where am I? What happened?" He says. He looks directly at me then to Ladybug.

"You're in the arena you made to get me and Ladybug." I say. He looks around and at the destroyed arena and then down at himself. I see realization flutter in his eyes when he realizes he's no longer Hawk Moth. He looks upset at first, but then he gives a good, honest grin.

"Heh" He chuckles, "So I've been defeated, haven't I?" He looks down at his hands and reaches for his neck. A bit of confusion and fear showed off of his face. "Have any of you seen a purple locket anywhere around here?" He asks. Confused, we all look around for the object. About a few feet away from us was an opened, broken locket Necklace, and a little purple Kawami scattered near it. I give Gabriel a glare, daring him to try and get it. He meets my gaze and sighs. "I don't care for the locket anymore, please, just bring me Nooroo. The Kawami."

A bit surprised and confused, I slowly walk up to the little Kawami on the floor. As I gently pick it up, I couldn't help but look at the locket lying next to the Kawami. Inside it was a small picture of my mother. With a twinge of sadness, I tear my eyes away from the Necklace and bring the small Kawami to Hawk Moth who takes him and gently hold him. The little Kawami opens his eyes and faces Gabriel.

"Master? What's going on?" The little Kawami asks looking at me and Ladybug.

"I've been defeated, that is all Nooroo." He looks away from the little thing to us, "Do any of you have anything to eat for him?" He asks. Both ladybug and I shake our heads. He sighs.

"Master, I'm fine. But what about everyone else?" He asks.

"Please, don't call me master. I'm no longer your miraculous holder." Gabriel says. He looks up at Ladybug and Me, "As for everyone else, I've simply hypnotized them. With my power gone, the moths that have kept them hypnotized should be gone. There is no need to worry where they are now. I placed them in underground areas in their original cities. You see, I've been somewhat planning this for a while now. With some extra money I made from fashion designing, I made underground tunnels for everyone for when this would happen.

"I wasn't stupid when I did this. They should all be hypnotized long enough for all of them to leave the areas and into their homes. Everyone should be leaving their areas as we speak."

"How about our friends?" I ask and point at all of the people at the edges of the arena.

"Well, actually, I'm not quite sure. I could call some busses and have them driven home." He says flatly. All of this good will from him suddenly gets me suspicious.

"Why are you doing all of this?" I state.

"Pardon?" He asks.

"Well, you're Paris's, well, France's worst villain of all time, and now you're just telling us about everything, and even assisting us to get everyone home? How can we trust you?" I ask, my voice a little more bitter than I intended it to be.

He chuckles, "My dear friends, I never wanted to do this. Chat, you saw the locket, I saw you look at it. That is a picture of my wife. About a year ago, she died and I fell into despair and became depressed. Master Fu, you know him, gave me a book."

"Yes, we know all about the book." Ladybug says.

"Oh, well then. No need to explain everything about that then. Well, do you know what I found while studying it?" He asks. Ladybug shakes her head, "Well, I came to find out that with the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous's, one can gain ultimate power and with that power, I can raise someone from the dead, only one however." He pauses and Ladybug and I glance at each other.

"What I wanted more than anything was to get her back. Blind with my want for that, I became bitter. You can even say that I akumatized myself. I was never the same after that. I became hard hearted. I locked out all relationships, even from my son Adrien, though, I didn't ever want to lose him either. In order to get both of these things, I kept him on a tight leash. I homeschooled him and for a long while, I didn't allow him to go out with people. Looking back at it all, I don't know how I will ever get him to forgive me." With this, Ladybug glances up to me. I sigh quietly.

"There is nothing to worry about Fa- I mean, Gabriel. I bet if you just tell him, or even just talk to him, he will understand. It might take some work, but I think that you two would be alright." I say. Gabriel looked at me astonished at first, but then gives a small smile.

"I don't think that will be possible because I believe that I will be arrested." He says. "I've been going about doing this for about a year, hurting people, turning them against each other. I deserve punishment." He says. We stay silent for a moment, but Ladybug speaks up.

"I don't think so." Ladybug says suddenly. "You said it yourself. You akumatized yourself, and I don't believe that anyone else who was akumatized got arrested." Gabriel was about to say something but Ladybug cut him off, "If you want punishment, then make your next line of fashion inexpensive." Gabriel laughs, like really laughs at this.

"Very well." He says.

With this she smiles and stands back up next to me. Both mine and Ladybug's Miraculous's beep at the same time. "Mr. Agreste, it was good to meet you, but it looks like we have to be off. Just know that if you need to learn anything from this, just know it's not good to hold onto the past. Let it go and look to the future." She smiles. Gabriel chuckles one last time.

"Oh Ladybug, there are more than just one thing I've learned from this event. Thank you." He says. We smile at him, and Ladybug runs off. I was about to follow her but I quickly remember something and look back at my father.

"Just remember to take Nooroo to-"

"To Master Fu. Don't worry. I'll take care of it along with your friends. Safe travels Chat Noir." He says. He gives me a smile and waves as I fly off towards Ladybug.

We quickly climb the ladder to the ground floor. The dome was now gone, showing a large, dark starry sky, although, in the distance, it does seem to be getting lighter. As fast as possible, Ladybug and I run right for the closest building that looks like a rundown inn. We enter into the building when our Miraculous's beep for the last time. We didn't try to hide ourselves from each other this time, we knew who each other were.

Completely out of breath, my green and her red light clashed as we transformed back into our real selves. Standing there was Marinette, and here I was, Adrien. Paris's team duo, finally facing each other for the first time face to face as their real selves. We just stare at each other, and don't realize Plagg and Marinette's Kawami until Plagg moans aloud next to us.

"Does anyone have any camembert? I'm starving." Plagg complains.

"Plagg." The red Kawami moans in annoyance. I couldn't hold it in any longer. I burst out laughing. I was quickly joined in by Marinette and the little red Kawami. Through our laughter, Plagg continued to say _Guys, I'm serious. What's so funny?_

After the laughter subsided, Marinette walked up to me.

"Common Adrien. I promised you a sunrise right?" She states. She then grabs my hand and leads be upstairs. After sorely climbing four floors, we reach the rooftop. Marinette lets go of my hand and runs to the edge of the building. She sits down, looks back at me and pats the seat next to her, gesturing me to sit next to her. I obey.

We sit down in silence for a while as we wait for the sun to rise. It wasn't an awkward silence, but I just felt that we needed to talk.

"So what now? France is safe, we don't have someone to fight anymore and we probably won't need our powers again." I say.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that. The world is always changing. We will be needed again, no doubt about that." She says then swiftly faces me. "Is this going to change anything?" She asks. I look at her a bit confused.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Well, we know who each other's identities now. Don't you see me different? I'm Marinette. The clumsy, baker, fashionista. A person that seems to mess everything up. Are you going to see me the same way as before? Are we still going to be partners?" She asks. Silence settles between us before I answer.

"Well, am I going to see you the same way before? No, of course not. I'm going to love you a _whole_ lot more. Are we still going to be partners? Of course we are! In fact, you're really going to regret telling me who you are. I loved you, both in Ladybug form and as yourself. Having both of you at the same time, I couldn't be happier. The real question is, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, do _you_ want this?" I ask. I extend my hand and place it on hers. She looks down at it for a second, grips my hand tightly, then looks back at me, tears in her eyes.

"More than anything." She says. She suddenly leans towards me, landing a kiss on my lips. It was passionate and fierce. She didn't hold anything back, and neither did I. We convinced each other of our feelings through this kiss, not caring for anything else in the world. We sat there, holding each other for eternity, ignoring the rising sun behind us.

-A/N-

Hi all. That's it! After months of writing, I've finally finished this story. Honestly this Fanfiction was a lot longer than I wanted it to be, but I'm still really proud of it, especially since it was my first fanfic. I also hope you enjoyed this SUPER long chapter. It took me so long to make (sorry for the wait). Thank you all for all the support you've given me and all of your wonderful reviews. I hope this ending was at least a bit satisfying. I want to hear from you guys. What did you guys think of it? Did you enjoy it? Just put your honest answers in the little box below. Hope you are all doing well, and I hope to hear from you all. See you out there!

~Sam :3


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